Making of a Spider Web - the Scaling lessons

“In the general sense, a system means a 

configuration of parts connected by a web of 

interdependent relationships. The rules set the stage 

for how these components are related to each other. Essentially, 

paying attention to the rules 

helps us to start to make sense of the 

interconnectedness that underlies the system 

we are looking at.”

                                                                                                                             - Donella Meadows

When one talks about scale, the immediate question is what about quality? I have always been confused about this question! I did not get a convincing answer to this question from the people I spoke to, until a few days ago, I happened to see a video of a spider making its web on linkedin and It was convincing to the core!

I found my answer! This is different from the more famous fable - Robert the Bruce and the Spider – Never Give Up!

Video link - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bunty-paswan-6989051b8_spider-web-amazing-ugcPost-6979672966519226368-5mU5/

Have you observed a spider building its web? What does it do? What scaling lessons do we learn for the art of building the web? I explore the elements I observed and learnt in this blog.

I could identify the following steps a spider does to build its web :

Firstly, it looks for a place where it can anchor itself. It creates the anchors, the threads that connect to any stable objects (branches, walls, etc) and that holds the web firmly. Apart from the anchors, there are lines going from the centre of the web to the outer frame of the web. These lines are called "radial lines" and they support the web. 

Secondly, it begins to build its web by connecting the radial threads through spiral threads from the centre of the web. The spiral threads are initially broad and the spider quickly goes to the end to create the framework within which the web would be built.

Thirdly, it consolidates by creating the spiral threads close to each other in making the web compact and stronger. As the spider moves back and forth, it adds more threads, strengthening the web and creating a pattern. Threads that go around and around the web are called "orb lines." This is a gradual effort of strengthening the web. 

Lastly, as the spider builds the web, it continuously checks and tests the strength of the radial threads to ensure that the web can absorb a reasonable amount of shocks (wear & tear).

The more I see the “making of the web'' the more convincing it is!

I relate these steps to our efforts at scaling the core model (above) for commoning land and water resources:

Firstly, the anchor and the radial lines that support the work on commoning are the policy and programmatic support. The key radial lines I relate to are - the provisions in the Revenue Act where the common resources are recorded with usufruct rights, the Panchayat Act (and PESA) that provides the institutional architecture for governance, the FRA Act/Panchayat Act and the Rules that support tenure on behalf of communities, the MGNREGA & GPDP programme that provides support for restoration of the resources; and, the Supreme Court Order of 2011 that provided for the states to create schemes for restoration of commons. The strength of the web depends heavily on the optimal distribution and on the appropriate positioning of the radial threads.

Secondly, once the radial lines are anchored, the spider begins connecting the radial lines through the auxiliary spiral threads from the centre. Connecting the work on commons, using the initial spiral threads they connect the radii lines to evolve a framework for commoning the common land and water resources. This is an effort to undertake the claiming and securing of the commons at scale - be it at a district or state scale. This is a stage where, like the spider, we work to  cover the larger area with basic minimum architecture to enable the claim of the resources.

Thirdly, once the outer framework is drawn, scale is achieved, the work on improving the quality takes precedence - as in case of the spider, it begins to weave closer spiral threads and closing the large gaps between the auxiliary spiral threads constructed earlier. Like the spider, we begin to add footholds through working with the villages in strengthening the processes, evolving the rules and regulations, and improving on the restoration processes. 

While the scaling and reaching out happens in the second stage, the efforts of strengthening the intervention happens at this stage. The collective action/governance gets strengthened with each new spiral thread that gets constructed. The key aspect necessary for a manager is to be innovative and creative in making the process stronger through instruments that are scalable and ingrained in the government policies and programs. 

Lastly, the continuous checks and tests that the spider makes by pulling the strings, helps in improving the strength of the web and ensures that the web can absorb a reasonable amount of shocks. It is the conflicts that emerge, disturbances that occur, challenges the system but each time the strength of the radial lines and the spiral threads (collective efforts) make the web stronger than either of them. 

Since I discovered some of the principles of scaling from the ‘Construction of the Spider’s Web’, I have been more confident and experienced a big shift in my mindset. This has enabled a journey of discovering the opportunities to innovate and reimagining the pathways.

I hope to write more on my small-small discoveries along the way!

SUBRATA SINGH

Everyone Lives Downstream: Nutrient flows and influence on Soil Organic Carbon

SOIL HEALTH-II

Subrata Singh* & Shubo Biswas**

‘Everyone lives Downstream’ was the theme of the World Water Day 1999 and it meant to convey that problems/benefits in one part of a watershed, or even in a country abroad, can affect people great distances away. Through this article, we share our preliminary findings on nutrient flows and its impact on downstream farming systems.  

Early in 1997, I (Subrata Singh) witnessed a conflict between two villages - Muktapasi and Sundhikateni (in Dhenkanal district, Odisha) regarding sharing of the stream water coming down the hill from the forests. The villagers were fighting to have the grey water into their fields. The water flowing down the stream was rich in humus and nutrients that was crucial to the productivity of their crops. The water is diverted to either village using temporary stone and mud structures. The communities protected their forests through the year, repaired the feeder channels to get the rain water to their fields and the water harvesting structures they constructed as well as developed rules and regulations for governance of their resources. Several years have passed, fertilisers and alternative nutrients are available as alternatives, but the value for the nutrient rich water continues and the right to use the water is still contested.

In the map above, blue line is the feeder channel flowing into Sundhikateni village and the red channel flows into Muktapasi village. A temporary structure is built to divert the water to the two villages based on requirement.

These are not stray incidents. We see and observe this in most villages adjoining good forest areas, farmers value their forests more for the nutrients and soil moisture regimes they benefit from (than the timber and forest produce that they provide). It's also a fact that the land nearer to the forests are the lands with little or no use of external fertilisers.

Researchers (Cleveland et al. 1999; Jobbágy and Jackson, 2000; Hedin et al. 2009; Cloern et al. 2014) have found, tropical forests and their soil have higher carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks than those in other climate regions because of active photosynthesis and biological N fixation throughout the year. Nutrient cycling is influenced significantly by the species of a forest ecosystem thereby influencing the quantity and quality of litter produced in a forest. When precipitation and the run-off water pass through forest soils, the organic carbon in the soil gradually flows downstream to the adjoining farm lands.

A geospatial analytical tool called Soil Health Explorer has been developed by GreenGood Labs, LLC. It is being used by Foundation for Ecological Security to analyse the information from 80,000+ soil health cards spread over 8 districts in Odisha through the portal. FES and GreenGood Labs, LLC. have been working together to improve our understanding and support decision making for farming interventions involving farmers, extension workers and the government.

We mapped the soil organic carbon data based on the Government of India set criteria of high (>0.75%), medium (0.51 - 0.75%) and low (<0.50%) as green, yellow and red colours to represent the data spatially. We added a coarse layer of drainage to explore the relationship between the land use in the upstream, extent of vegetation and soil health downstream. The spatial representation of soil health data reveals a positive correlation between good vegetation in the uplands and the organic content in the farming lands and vice versa.

The water that flows at the onset of monsoons carry the litter and organic matter from the forest floor to the agricultural lands downstream. The farm lands nearer to the forests are the most benefitted from such organic matter

Most of the stream beds from the hillocks/forests in these districts are used for paddy cultivation, the humus and organic content in the soil are deposited in the lands and thereby contribute to improving soil carbon in the soils. The inflow of soil organic carbon is dependent on the type, diversity and thickness of the vegetation. Contrarily, in case of degraded systems, the soil erosion from the slope gets deposited in the lands leading to reduced soil fertility, thereby lesser soil carbon content.

As an example, the agricultural lands in or adjoining the drainage lines in Angul, where the forests are in better shape show/exhibit netter soil carbon.

The agricultural lands adjoining the drainage lines in Koraput, which are denuded and used for quarrying activities show medium or low soil carbon

Nutrient cycling, an important supporting service contributes 69–89% to the total value of ecosystem services. It tracks movement of nutrients during various biological processes between biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem (2021, Mehta & Jain). According to Robert Constanza, Nutrient cycling represented the highest valued ecosystem service, at $17 trillion per year. The nutrient cycling ecological services are based on determination of major ecosystem functions like nitrogen fixation and litter decomposition and mineralisation rate, which is the most common ecosystem functions/processes.

There is a growing demand from policy makers and forest managers for spatial estimates on nutrient cycling at local, regional, and national scales (2021 Mehta & Jain). The Soil Health Explorer enables different stakeholders to understand and analyse how the nutrient cycling enables nutrient flows for better soil health downstream as well as suggests how lack of vegetation has serious impacts on the farm lands downstream. This article is aimed to share the preliminary understanding from the spatial representation of the soil health data and it opens up scope for much larger investigation into the issue and establish more concretely the dynamic relationship arising due to the land use in the upstream and the impact on the soil health in the downstream agricultural lands.

* Subrata Singh is the Programme Director at Foundation for Ecological Security and has more than two decades of experience working on issues related to land and water commons, natural resource management, community governance, polycentric governance, and public policy.

** Shubo Biswas is the Founder and CEO of GreenGood Labs, LLC. which works with a vision to co-create solutions with the help of local communities and make them available to the maximum number of people through open designs and free access to education material.

Soil Health Explorer - Making Sense of Soil Health Cards

Subrata Singh* & Shubo Biswas**

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India considers diminishing soil structure and biology as one of the leading causes of stagnation in agricultural productivity. Soil is one of the most important ‘infrastructure’ of the farmers, based on which the entire agriculture is dependent and therefore the farmers’ livelihoods. According to Ashok Dalwai, CEO of National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) content in India has come down to 0.3 percent from 1 percent in the past 70 years which is a cause of concern for the agriculture sector.

The Agriculture Ministry under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) initiated with the objectives to make agriculture more productive, sustainable and climate resilient; to conserve natural resources; to adopt comprehensive soil health management practices; to optimise utilisation of water resources; etc. Soil Health Management (SHM) is one of the most important interventions under NMSA and the government launched the Soil Health Card portal in 2015. The portal has over 10 crore records and provides district and block wise understanding of the soil health information on various parameters.

While the portal is an excellent repository of information and the individual soil health card provides the details of the soil health of their plot of land to the farmer with recommendation for fertiliser usage, we felt the need for making sense of data at a spatial scale and understanding the reasons. FES and GreenGood Labs, LLC. have been working together to improve our understanding and support decision making for agricultural interventions involving farmers, extension workers and the government. A geospatial analytical tool called Soil Health Explorer has been developed by GreenGood Labs, LLC. to analyse the information from 80,000+ soil health cards spread over 8 districts in Odisha from the portal.

Emerging challenges of climate change and growing population imply that the current agricultural systems will need to produce more food in an increasingly vulnerable environment (owing to climate change) as well as a declining natural resource base. It is scientifically proven that soil organic carbon plays a pivotal role in maintaining soil physical, chemical, and biological properties and ultimately yield and therefore may be considered as a central measure of the agricultural system capacity of a location. Soil carbon is the most important component in the soil that determines ecosystem and agroecosystem functions by influencing soil fertility, soil water, environment, microbial activity and other soil parameters. 

Further, with regenerative agriculture as a core focus of our engagement, we have attempted to garner our understanding focusing on soil organic carbon as the single most important indicator. While we understand that the state of the soil health of a plot is a function of the agronomic practices, crops grown, rotation followed and inputs provided, understanding the trends through larger datasets provide a better understanding at spatial scales for decision making.

For the matter of understanding, we mapped the soil organic carbon data of 80000+ data sets based on the Government of India set criteria of high (>0.75%), medium (0.51 - 0.75%) and low (<0.50%) as green, yellow and red colours to represent the data spatially

Laying down the data spatially was a revelation -

1. In locations with good forests/commons (like in Angul), farms nearer to the commons have more organic carbon than the farms away from the commons. In locations like in Koraput, where the forests/commons are degraded, the soil organic carbon in such areas is poor. This clearly indicates the nutrient (organic matter) flows from the good forests/commons to the farm lands. This urges one to look at agriculture as part of the larger landscape and the health of the landscape and the land-use therein determines the health of the agriculture system.

2. Attempts are being made to understand the data spatially based on the period of ground cover on the agriculture lands during the year. Most of the areas in this part of the country are left fallow after Kharif or farmers take a short-term crop in winter to use the available soil moisture. The farms are usually fallow during the summer months which is largely responsible for depletion in soil organic carbon. Analysis suggests that the plots mostly have low soil carbon content in areas where the barrenness is for a longer period. According to Rattan Lal, Director of Ohio State University’s Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, the world’s cultivated soils have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their original carbon stock, much of which has oxidized upon exposure to air to become carbon dioxide.

The tool would help the frontline agriculture workers - Block Agriculture Officers (BAO), Assistant Agriculture Officers (AAO), Krushak Sathis and Krishi Mitras to understand the issues in their areas, evolve and design interventions to improve soil organic carbon in their locations. The key directions could be:

• Understand the farming system as a whole, with various components of the landscape contributing to the outcomes in a farm. For example, the commons play an important role in improving soil moisture regimes, nutrient cycling, pollination services etc.

• Efforts need to be made to reduce the direct exposure of the soils to the atmosphere as longer term exposure would lead to oxidation of carbon into carbon dioxide.

• Improve the soil organic carbon across the area through increasing the biomass and organic matter in the soil and help in improving microbial activities in the soil. Proper management of organic manures and crop residues, conservation tillage, mulching, and cover crops can play an important role in reducing carbon dioxide emission.

• Crop rotation, green manuring (berseem, alfalfa), legume crops, animal manures, biofertilizers, adoption of agroforestry systems, silvopastoral systems, etc. can help improve organic carbon content in soil. 

Regular engagement and deliberations among stakeholders using the datasets and the analysis can help evolving long term strategies in the meetings of the Block Technical Team (BTT) and District Level Guidance Committees. There is an urgent need to appreciate and recognize Soil Organic Carbon as the key asset and we need to work together to restore the same.

FES works on promoting and strengthening Sustainable Agriculture Practices across 8 districts in Odisha in collaboration with Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Odisha Livelihoods Mission. We aim to demonstrate a model for mainstreaming behaviour change in agronomic practices and water use in agriculture by driving it through the agriculture extension system. With tools like the Soil Health Explorer and information made available to extension cadres like Krishi Mitras and Krushak Sathis, we believe they can help in improving the frontline cadre’s ability to understand the location specificities using available information. Constant engagement with experts, etc will go a long way in strengthening the ability and effectiveness to support resilient livelihoods for farming communities.

 

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* Subrata Singh is the Programme Director at Foundation for Ecological Security and has more than two decades of experience working on issues related to land and water commons, natural resource management, community governance, polycentric governance, and public policy.

** Shubo Biswas is the Founder and CEO of GreenGood Labs, LLC. which works with a vision to co-create solutions with the help of local communities and make them available to the maximum number of people through open designs and free access to education material.

Managing the Commons - the Rajasthan Way

As we celebrate World Environment Day today, with the theme ‘Only One Earth’, it is an opportunity to celebrate the stewardship of the natural resources by communities across the country and especially the 7500+ communities across Rajasthan. Using the provision of 170 (1) of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act/Rules, the communities have formed village level institutions to manage their charagah (pastures) across the state. They have been protecting their resources against all odds. We need to appreciate and rewards their efforts!

Rajasthan has been the only state to establish a Rajasthan Wasteland Development Board in 2009 to decide the policy & strategies for development of wasteland under the Chairmanship of Hon'ble Rural Dev. & Panchayati Raj Minister. On 27th December 2016, the Wasteland Development Board was renamed as Wasteland and Pastureland Development Board, with due focus on the protection and conservation of the charagah across the state. Key to the proposition has been the livelihoods of the majority of the rural communities dependent on livestock and livestock rearing.

While various states have have been attempting to respond and comply to the Supreme Court judgement in the Jagpal Singh vs Government of Punjab case, what Rajasthan unfolded in April 2017 was an unique architecture under the Wasteland and Pastureland Development Board was the formation of the District level Banjar Bhoomi Evam Charagah Vikas Samiti headed by the Pramukh of Zilla Parishad, Block level Banjar Bhoomi Evam Charagah Vikas Samiti headed by the Block Pradhan of Panchayat Samiti and Panchayat level Banjar Bhoomi Evam Charagah Vikas Samiti headed by the Sarpanch. The construct of the committees recognised and committed to the need for convergence between the departments of Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Revenue and Agriculture to address this complex issue. This architecture was designed to help in the better management and governance of the charagah and other common lands through the  demarcation of common lands, removal of encroachments and evolving plans for restoration of the commons through MGNREGS.

On this day, we celebrate the conservation and restoration of the charagah lands by the 7500+ Charagah Vikas Samitis. While these are initial baby steps taken in the right direction, there is a lot of support necessary in them becoming effective stewards of their resources. Key to their efforts is the conservation of the grassland ecology of the region that not only provides fodder to the livestock but also are key habitat to the endangered species such as Great Indian Bustard and lesser florican species. With 4.07 million acres of charagah lands and 13.4 million acres of wastelands as per 2011 census, Rajasthan through these efforts stands to contribute a sizable percentage of the restoration targets of 26 million hectares announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The architecture of Banjar Bhoomi Evam Charagah Vikas Samitis at panchayat, block and district level has enabled the much needed facilitating structures for communities to take the much desired responsibilities. 

The establishment of the Public Land Protection Cells (in 2019) in each district under the District Collector for speedy resolution of issues related to encroachments of common lands is yet another key development in Rajasthan. This has enabled a decentralised and much easier access to the judicial resolution mechanisms. Though not tied together yet, Banjar Bhoomi Evam Charagah Vikas Samitis and Public Land Protection Cells at district level can work hand in hand to enable better governance of 27.5% of common lands in the state.

A quiet movement has begun and is spreading village by village, communities are regaining control over their commons - facilitated by enabling structures at various levels, we hope for a healthier ecosystem and resilient livelihoods of the communities. We hope other states would learn from the unique arrangements in Rajasthan for safeguarding the commons.

Subrata Singh

Why is entry of Common Resources in the Panchayat Asset Register Important?

Encroachment, the illegal occupation and cultivation of common land, 

occurs throughout many less-developed countries. Much of this encroachment 

has been at the boundaries of common and private land: 

Farmers with private land adjacent to the common land encroach by 

gradually moving the boundary marker, incorporating the common land 

into their own holdings, and farming it as their own 

to the exclusion of others.

-Elizabeth J Z Robinson 

(University of Oxford) Sept 2004

The above observation by Elizabeth J Z Robinson is widespread and is a story of the common lands and water bodies across the country. Hearing on one such issue, the Supreme Court of India in 2011 pronounced a landmark judgement for the management and governance of the commons in the country. The Court gave directions to all the State Governments in the country to prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorized occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat land and these lands be restored to the Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat for the common use of villagers of the village.  It provided a hope and momentum for the communities to get back the rights over the commons that they lost to the encroachments. 

In the process of land settlement in the country, while the individuals were provided rights to the private lands, the common lands were brought under the purview of the state through the principle of Eminent Domain. These lands were supposed to be managed with the principle of Public Trust Doctrine – where the State is not an absolute owner, but a trustee of all natural resources (Singh 2013). For the process of better land management, certain lands are managed by the Revenue Department, some by the Forest department and some by the  panchayats through custodial rights provided to them. The lands in many parts were also reserved for specific purposes and have guidelines for such uses.

The Tragedy of Commons is not just because the communities have not been able to regulate themselves but also because of gross neglect by the regulating agencies. As Bromley & Cernea, 1988 put it, many states have taken on far more resource management authority than they can be expected to carry out effectively. This has led to a vicious cycle of furthering encroachments and inaction by communities as well as authorities.

This is further exacerbated because of the lack or difficulty in accessing the maps/data about the common lands for the local citizens. Though several governments have been in the process of digitising land records, there’s a long way to go for the data to be available as open access for various stakeholders to access and enable engagement on the issue. The siloed functioning of each department like the revenue department, forest department, panchayats, etc further makes it difficult to manage the resources. Making the data available digitally (especially in spatial formats) through the open-data registries would help in better governance and analysis.

It's a tragedy that while the panchayats have been given the custodial rights to manage the commons, the details of the same are not maintained nor available to them at their level. While there are provisions for entry of such assets into the Panchayat Asset Register, the processes are rarely followed. The panchayat asset register only maintains the fixed and movable assets they own, but in most cases across states, they do not update their records with the lands they are expected to manage. 

Making sense of entry into Asset Register

In its simplest form, an asset register is a detailed list compiled of all assets held by the institutions. The purpose of an asset register is to enable institutions to know the status, condition, location, price, depreciation, and the current value of each asset. Entering of the information in the Asset Register enables:

• Providing transparency of all asset data

• Helping to track and identify assets, prevent assets from being lost or stolen 

• Ensuring all assets remain compliant with regulatory standards, provide an accurate audit trail

The entry of an asset in the Asset Register brings along functions that ensures the assets are in proper shape and condition. It requires undertaking a physical audit or social audit of the public assets for safeguarding the same against mis-use or misappropriation.

It may be noted that entering the physical assets like the grazing lands, forest lands or lands meant for development purposes along with the resources being developed under various programs especially MGNREGS and regular social audit once every quarter/six months would go a long way in reducing or removing encroachments along with designing programmatic investments in the resource.

Making Land Audit a way

In the recent past, several local governments especially in the urban spaces have been undertaking land audits or Performance Audit on Land Management based under Section 19(2) of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (Duties, Powers and Conditions of Service) Act, 1971. In 2014, land management audit was undertaken for Delhi Development Authority; Land Audits are being undertaken by the Ministry of Defence for the large tracts of land for use by Services and other related organisations hold; more recently in April 2022, the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) undertook a land audit for the identification of lands that were encroached upon and reclaim their possession. The examples provide an adequate precedent for such land audits to be undertaken across.

Given the issues of encroachment of the common lands, forest lands or water resources, having Land Audit as a regular practice should be put in place. Given the wide spread dependence of several stakeholders on the commons, evolving mechanisms for social audit of land need to be evolved. This would help & assist in identifying encroachments and taking action related to removal of their encroachments and enable better investments in the restoration and upkeep of such resources. 

The framework of the Audit should include and assess the following: 

• Whether there is a proper demarcation of the land parcels; whether an effective system of records management and documentation exists; 

• Whether there is mis-use or encroachments on the land; whether action has been taken for removal of such encroachments and the results thereof; whether these were undertaken in accordance with the applicable legal and regulatory framework;

• Whether an efficient planning mechanism for carrying out the land management activities was in place and was functional; Whether restoration/management activities are being executed with efficiency, economy and effectiveness; 

• Whether an effective internal control and monitoring system was in place for land management activities. 

Once the Panchayats realise their responsibility as custodians of the common lands and the instruments of asset registers and audits are in place, we believe the encroachments on the Commons would drastically reduce and trigger better governance of the resources.

SUBRATA SINGH

A version of the article has been published in "Ideas for India" on 7th December 2022 in the link below

https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/the-panchayat-asset-register-an-instrument-to-conserve-india-s-commons.html

Data-driven Approach to Water Management

The story of water has been like the story of Blind Men and the Elephant written by John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887). We do not have a comprehensive view of water nor a central authority looking at water governance as a whole. We treat drinking water, surface water, ground water separately, perhaps to manage it scientifically as well as efficiently. Is it time for us to question this approach? Is it necessary for us to understand the policy and governance blindspots and reimagine the way water should be governed?

While we begin to answer the above, we need to examine at what level should water governance institutions be most appropriate? We have been discussing hydrological boundaries such as river basins, macro watersheds, micro watersheds and aquifers or administrative boundaries such as village or panchayat or at higher levels or through user groups such as water-user associations, ground water associations and paani samitis. We have been experimenting with various institutional forms at various levels, but we are still searching for effective governance structures to manage the water resources. This is further complicated because the decisions on water are further dictated by land use decisions, agriculture, horticulture, industrial uses as well as urban demands.

While we understand polycentric governance through multiple nodes of decision making may make sense, it is really difficult to understand who is evolving the collage - seeing them together to build a coherent narrative. The macro institutions at river basin level are definitely the bodies that need to see it together and develop policies and governance framework for water use. While these institutions have been long conceptualised and put in place, they failed to make a significant impact in water governance.

Strong mental models have influenced agriculture to bring us to a state where we are today - ‘wrong crops in wrong areas’; market mechanisms have influenced research and extension institutions to promote the same; research and development to cater to such crops, etc. As a result, we lost crops that suited local conditions, that were resilient to such climatic conditions and suited local tastes. We have gone too far and too deep in re-architecting the landscapes - perhaps at a point of no return!

Today we would perhaps need to rethink the model of water governance and water led production systems. We need to wrest the responsibility of water governance to more long standing institutions at village and panchayat levels. It is at this level, that water is seen more holistically and it is the level where better consciousness can lead to better governance. It is the level where the conjunctive nature of water is better realised and understood. It is the level where work on the demand side of water is more palpable as work on demand side management requires development of norms and byelaws; trust and understanding among each other; strong conflict resolution mechanisms, etc.

In order to facilitate the above, it requires timely and periodic collection of data and evolving data architecture and data analytics capability to assist communities in decision making. While the need is so evident, one can only wonder why we haven’t been able to establish the system across the country. While there is a lot of research and anecdotal success stories from across the country, it is important to design a digital data architecture to assist various stakeholders to manage their water resources better. Core to the data-driven approach to water management would need run-time data collection, at saturation to make larger meaning to the data and for stakeholders to understand, co-create solutions and support the management of water at different scales.

Spatial data on water harvesting structures, wells and borewells at saturation for a block or district could change the way we understand the status and the way water resources are governed. The water levels in the wells and borewells along with information on crops and irrigation could help understand the use of water. While some of the information is collected, most of the data is not available in the public and in a common platform making it difficult for decision makers and stakeholders to engage with the issue. While there may be a fear in implementing such an initiative, as the emergence of such data may throw up several questions related to accountability and compliance to the current laws, it would definitely go a long way in evolving better water governance.

To enable this, a primary requirement would be to have a grid of dedicated cadres at panchayat level for information collection at real time. It would also require building capacities of village institutions and the panchayats (local governments) to understand the situation related to water and its usage as well as take steps to manage their resources better. The institutions at the village and Panchayat are better placed to evolve norms and rules for better water management, land-use decisions, equitable access and use of water, crop choices, cropping decisions based on water availability, as well as influence behaviour among the constituent members. Availability of the data would help various stakeholders in co-creating analytical insights and solutions to water management with reduced risk of over exploitation of the water resources. 

Subrata Singh

Trend Map - Understanding Water through a historic timeline

My journey of understanding water and water use has largely been through the lens of the communities on the changes that happened through the years. While I write this piece, I cherish the travels across the country and discussions with various communities we have had through the last decade for understanding water. The participatory exercises to understand the tapestry of water opened our eyes and led to inform our continued work on looking at water, especially ground water, through the lens of commons.

It has been fascinating to learn from the recollections of the community members from their past. Our inquisitive questions to understand the layers about changing water resources (shift from surface irrigation systems and wells to the introduction of tube wells to the continued greed for water leading communities to drill deeper), to changing crops over the last five decades - brought-in by the key factors like access to technology, access to electricity with providing subsidies for tube wells and influence of markets. The tube wells led to the privatisation of water, which till that time was considered a common resource.

Ironically, we realised from the discussion that the communities never have had such a collective reflection process in the last few decades. The changes for a farmer have been like the "boiling frog syndrome" (a metaphor that describes the failure to act against a problematic situation which will increase in severity until reaching catastrophic proportions). The sketch that evolved (above) from an hour of discussion was equally a revelation for the communities, the path that they treaded was something they did without realising the design - the trap that they were into. This was a revelation for us - that led us to understand why there have been so many farmer suicides - the farmers were lured into the ‘chakravyu’ for which they didnot have answer for. 

Market mechanisms have wronged us. Technology and money power have taken us to pursue wrong crops in wrong locations. Green Revolution has wrongly been understood that irrigation is development, irrigated crops are the go-to crops, agriculture research focussed on such crops - enabling them to grow everywhere and anywhere. 

As a tool, this is simplistic, but as we begin to put together the facts, layer after layer, it begins to ask questions to ourselves on ‘where did we go wrong’ - pushing all the stakeholders into serendipity! 

This ‘state’ is not just for the farmers alone, the policy makers as well as the practitioners too have been blinded by the gradual development around all of us. We have gone too far and too ahead to be able to return back, we know we need to change course/direction - we need to question ourselves more often - we need to bring in paradigm shifts in the discourse around water and water governance.

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