Socio Economic Factors Responsible for Groundwater Consumption in Purba Bardhaman District of West Bengal

Abstract

Groundwater is the biggest freshwater reservoir in the world. More than 95% of the unfrozen water comes from groundwater. Factors responsible for groundwater consumption by rice growers have been included in the study. For the study, Purba Barddhaman district was selected purposively considering the pattern of agriculture and extent groundwater use in the state. One community development block from the district has selected based on crop diversity, type of irrigation, amount of water extraction for irrigation purposes. From the selected block a big parcel of cultivating land (Math) were again selected randomly keeping the consideration of homogeneity in lad type, soil type, type of crops, variety and seasons. Farmers’ knowledge level, farmers’ attitude towards irrigation, economic motivation, improved water extraction mechanism and method of irrigation are the major contributing factors in predicting the amount of groundwater consumption when crop and land situation are constant.