The Invisible Institutions

Posted in LinkedIn 

I am intrigued by the discussion on institutional structures. Each village we go to, where seemingly no institutions exist - have an invisible institution, which we can't/don't see, but still the village functions as an entity. Several functions happen, even governance of natural resources, much contextualised to the population it caters to.

We bring in institutional templates, we bring different service providers - they survive program tenures but then they may disappear - but more often than not, the functions merge with the invisible (institutions). The invisible is time tested, cannot take the burden of external templates and compliance, but manage the functions through norms, rules and volunteerism

We have large programs, we have SOPs and we have templates for outcomes.

The fragmentation created by several committees with the same set of people - with different or contradictory processes - have brought irreparable damage to the norms and the invisible institutions

We are afraid of the diversity of outcomes, as programs we cannot embrace diversity, we have difficulty in embracing contextual responses.

The ability of communities to mould, design contextual solutions, absorb or re-engineer to suit themselves is in true sense - STEWARDSHIP!

Discussions on LinkedIn:

Shailesh Nagar:

Programmatic frameworks are useful for the dialogue that they create (if they create) within the communities, questioning, modifying, feedback etc. Some communities have seen them as such and used the learning and finance that comes with these programmes to be better adapted to the changing world. We as individuals are also bombarded with frameworks/norms, the art is to understand these as frameworks, take or leave what you need for your betterment (each one is free to define it for themselves) and move. 

Subrata Singh

Definitely agree on programmatic frameworks and the discourse it creates, also the spirit of such programs. The essence lies in how it reaches the communities and in what form. The SOPs and our eagerness to monitor through sharp indicators 

Shailesh Nagar

Yes. Also, it is impossible or very difficult and many times counterproductive, especially in ecological domains to craft specific indicators for monitoring and evaluating. When there is trust, monitoring will be less. The opposite is true as well. SOPs don't work everywhere, especially when the system change you are working with needs adaptive thinking and doing and not standardized approaches. 

Pranab Choudhary

I think these invisible or informal institutions run through the tacit knowledge systems of the community. Informality and invisibility are not only embedded realities of localised systems, they are also resilient, adaptive & endogenous. However external governance and development actors, by virtue of their education and orientation tend to prefer formalised system and to projectise institutions. Many a time such impositions from top through incentivised structure and Co-option not only have weakened the local systems and generated externalities, but also they have resulted in conflict and worked against the goal of the external agenda. An alternative approach is to explore if and how can external actors work with and adapt to local invisible and informal systems?

Subrata Singh

This search to recognise the invisible and work with them is necessary and imminent 

Bryan Bruns

Good observations. However, I wonder about the extent of “irreparable damage” versus communities being able to dress themselves up as needed to comply with external demands, and then keep things they value going on after the projects and programs have faded away.

Subrata Singh

Thanks, the communities have definitely learnt to dress themselves up to comply but certain changes are difficult to change once accepted. The horizon of thinking is changing, certain interventions are designed for impact at long term, but communities fall for short term gains. Like surface irrigation systems were designed and supported over years to be killed by borewells in two decades. It's a bait we all fell for. Similarly, village institutions versus SHGs.

Aleen Mukherjee

They have skin in the game. 

Subrata Singh

Love the comment and the essence. A bit more elaboration will be helpful 

Saswatik Tripathy

Absolutely, these organic structures have stood the test of time, functioning through community norms, rules, and volunteerism. When we bring in external templates, we sometimes risk disrupting these delicate balances.

It's a thought-provoking reminder that not every challenge can be solved with standard operating procedures and templates. Diversity of outcomes, as you mentioned, should be embraced, not feared. The ability of communities to adapt and design contextual solutions is indeed a form of stewardship, reflecting the resilience and resourcefulness of these invisible institutions.

This highlights the importance of collaboration and listening to local voices, allowing communities to take the lead in shaping their futures. 

Jitesh Kumar Panda

Invisible and informal community institutions facilitate formation of formal community institutions.

Both complement and supplement each other.

Getting 'Glass Offices' to the Villages/Panchayats!

How do we create aspirations for the people within their villages, their panchayats? How do we bring back the dignity of occupations at the village level? How will people feel proud?

While the 'glass offices' may just be symbolic, the struggle is to reverse the trend. While it may take long to achieve, we need to start with small steps now.

How do we instill pride in farmers feeding the cities? How do the villages/panchayats have best of facilities?

Restoring Dignity in farmers

The communities in rural areas are suffering from a lack of dignity and self pride. We have created a mirage - by presenting the flashy side of urban life. The lack of dignity in rural life is perhaps the prime reason for distress migration of the youths. Being a retail worker or a zomato delivery boy are more dignified than a farmer today!

Wondering, how do we bring back the dignity in rural life and in their occupation. How do we redesign the development process and infrastructure to instill dignity? Rural Ecosystem - architecture, skills, job etc needs to be created locally. Can panchayats employ 40-50 youths for different services?

Ideas would be helpful!

Discussions on LinkedIn

Priyanka Singh Bais

I believe content creation offers a unique way to positively impact rural ecosystems. Online content creators highlighting rural life, local products, & communal activities offer recognition and visibility to rural communities. This acknowledgment boosts the self-esteem & dignity of these communities by valuing their traditions and culture. Additionally, they provides educational content on sustainable farming practices & rural entrepreneurship, which can empower the rural population.

Another aspect is rural & agro-tourism, which brings economic opportunities to rural areas. Urban visitors explore the natural beauty, working farms & culture of rural regions, benefiting local economies. Maharashtra has set a great example. Besides, rural tourism has also been highlighted in the side events of G20 Tourism Working Group meetings held under Indian presidency!

Mainly, Panchayats are key here. Through capacity building, community engagement, effective governance, political decentralization, financial empowerment, & as you mentioned "stewardship," they can independently provide necessary incentives, funding, and infrastructure for rural development, ensuring sustainability & restoring dignity.

I hope these points address the questions

Priyanka Singh Bais

Subrata Singh Absolutely showing the reality of urban life should be the way forward!

Surjodoy Nandy

In most of the states Panchayats are either defunct or too much politicised....In most states fund, function, functionaries are either not devolved to panchayat or it's only on paper and block district admins are controlling panchayats. On the other side beneficiary syndrome is high among citizens. First political will is needed at the state legislators level so that they bring decentralisation as mentioned in the 11th schedule of constitution. So far only left parties showed such will in the country. On one side decentralisation and hand hold panchayats and on the other side cultural and educational intervention at community level....this I think can change the situation. If a local governance institution becomes stronger and sensitive, then things will change.

Subrata Singh

We need a better interpretation of 'local government'. An imagination and vision would help to change is needed! Panchayats with own funds can show the way.

There is a need to move away from the beneficiary approach, and embrace a stewardship approach.

Shiv Singh

Very tough to answer Subrata Singh but still some of the ideas are as follows:

# Policy reforms needed to strengthen the Panchayati Raj Governance systems to make them become accountable for socio-economic development with ecological balance at local level and towards more attention on strengthening all form of crafted/self-evolved institutions with more focus on inclusion, and women/youth empowerment 

# Reforms related to meso-level governance would be also required to bring back the dignity and pride in rural populace 

# Highly focused approach needed to build the competitive rural infrastructure 

# Special attention needs to be provided to develop the local market and enterprises

# Climate smart regenerative agriculture production systems need to be established and strengthened with proper value chain systems towards produce price realisation, INRM, regenerative bio economic growth and sustainable impacts 

# Upgraded services need to be ensured specially related to health, education, vocational training and strengthening rural livelihood (specially of youth)

# More focus need to be given on the establishing the local-self community governance on the common property resources at habitation/panchayat level

Subrata Singh

Thanks Shiv Singh for your suggestions! Need deeper thinking and engagement on this.

Rahul Banerjee

The greatest number of people can be employed in ecosystem restoration, sustainable agriculture, distributed electricity generation and agricultural processing. So the government needs to invest in these in a big way. The investment will raise productivity and incomes and come back to the government through taxes. Similarly govt investment in school education and primary health too needs to be increased. NGOs and social entrepreneurs can only run pilots, it is the responsibility of the government to provide sustainable and equitable development which it has not done since the time of independence. The ratio of govt exp per capita in rural areas to the per capita GDP is one of the lowest in the world and has been so for decades. Overall govt exp to GDP ratio in India is an abysmal 14% whereas it is 40% in the USA.

Subrata Singh

Thanks Rahul, great inputs and needs structured engagement. Need to engage a lot, evolve instruments (like GPDP) and build capacities on this issue.

Manu Srivastava

Agree Subrat. But just not jobs at the panchayats, can we create more job and entrepreneurship opportunities for the rural youth. At Arghyam we are planning a research with Water For People and JustJobs Network to look at direct jobs for integrated water management for villages across the country. 

Subrata Singh

Thanks Manu, in discussion with Guru on the same. We need to look at it from a governance perspective - with panchayat being the determining position and exercising its powers - May need to look at Panchayat as a Corporate Entity (in functioning)

Nishant Kumar

Like your sensitive obsevation surely one of the sharpest question one faced in the sector was from CGM NABARD at RO Gujrat in 2010 addressed to a large group of development professionals _ How many of you do keetan bhajan with tribals after your duty hour?

Maybe the same crisis of lack self esteem was facing Shabri before the visit of Ram. He certified her perseverance as supreme of all devotion achieved by none before (Nawdha bhakti). She still is one of the most revered tribal icon in Central India and beyond. 

Writing all this surely not to promote any North or South from centre approach in development but emphasising on the much beyond solutions from a cultural development approach. Surely a handful of true Bhagats have proved more than armies of pseudo believers in all aspects of rural life including self respect and social mobility. 

May your humane approach thrive amidst ongoing clash of civilizations hell bent to rob communities of their identity and roots.

Deepannita Misra

Interesting points... perhaps these local trends also warrant taking a closer look at industrial-agricultural growth patterns, aspirations and contexts of what are considered to be the 'pillars of development' at the global and local levels, simultaneously. Attaching the reference to "green growth strategy" for review too: https://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/green-growth-initiative 

Ranjan K Panda

When I started understanding the traditional water harvesting systems of central highlands in early 90s, one strong observation came to the fore: the same people who created these marvels have lost their confidence, hence self-esteem, due to the negligence of their traditional knowledge by the system, thanks to concrete engineering dominated water depts. It took quite some time to bring back some level of confidence through various initiatives that respected their knowledge and co-created models of water harvesting on which they had the ownership. I think, in principle, some solutions can be found in such approaches. Thanks!

Raghvender Bhati

There is a general sense of unawareness and distrust among youth towards the use of various government schemes aimed at uplifting local entrepreneurship. An emphasis on educating the masses about the same is pretty important. I am planning to work towards such a campaign in some villages nearby NCR starting sometime soon, pls dm if you'd like to collaborate.

Paras Tyagi

What better way than pointing out the ill effects of transforming villages into cities for development, i.e. from rural to urban villages without any planning that has changed people's way of life, making it much worse than before. Except monetary benefits for few who took wise decisions, this change has resulted in social issues that are seldom talked about in the mainstream. A practical solution is "village development plan" that is purposely denied to villages. Be it Delhi, Bengaluru or any other expanding town and city in India, everywhere the villagers are not provided the right kind of opportunities. Most importantly it is the children youth women and elders who suffer the most. The least that civil society can do is help in advocating for this policy change. It's not rocket science, the Orthodox village society will continue to remain aloof and adamant because they lack the farsightedness to understand urbanization.

Making the Case for a Common Land Registry

 Subrata Singh & Pooja Chandran

India, renowned for its diverse landscapes and communities, has almost a quarter of its territory as communal or common lands. These include a range of areas, such as grazing pastures, village commons, and community forests, all collectively used and managed by local communities. This subtle yet pivotal role significantly contributes to sustaining rural livelihoods, biodiversity, and ecological balance.

However, nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since the last documented assessment of India’s common lands. The scarcity of comprehensive data and knowledge stands at the core of unsustainable resource use, weak policies, conflicts, and missed opportunities for conservation. As a result, common land resources are currently experiencing a rapid decline, despite judicial calls for action urging their protection. 

Over the years, state departments have progressed in developing data systems and digitising paper records to support their primary areas of operations. Yet, the lack of well-coordinated information across government units remains a challenge. A case in point is observed in Andhra Pradesh, where numerous villages recently implored their district authorities to include their common lands within the Prohibitory Order Book (POB). Doing so would ensure that these lands, otherwise categorised as ‘wastelands’, are reserved for communal use and safeguarded from diversions for alternative purposes.

Although several villages witnessed lands entered into the POB following their requests, the communities’ rights to manage the resources usually did not get documented. This results from the historic disconnect between the land revenue departments and local governing bodies under the panchayati raj system. The former, concerned primarily with documentation and land records, can sometimes overlook the social, cultural, and economic significance of common lands. On the other hand, the latter, while engaged with local communities, lacks the legal mechanisms required for formal recognition and protection of lands beyond the panchayat circle. This scenario is exacerbated by vague land boundaries, encroachments, and competing claims.

Yet, this August, hope emerged in the village of Chintamakulapalle when the panchayat received a long-awaited letter from the revenue department, officially acknowledging their custodianship of the hard-fought common lands. As a definitive step forward, the panchayat promptly entered the lands into their panchayat asset register, planting the seed of progress for others to follow. Even without a clear legislative framework for tenure, the community’s rights and customs can hold weight within the court of law.

This triumph resonates as more than a local victory; it echoes the need to harmonise India’s diverse land information management practices into a cohesive whole. Governance of common lands transcends administrative boundaries and involves multiple stakeholders with varying interests. A cohesive strategy is needed to break down data silos and integrate different knowledge systems, thus empowering communities to make well-informed decisions that safeguard the sustainability of common lands for generations to come. As the crucial first step, a comprehensive registry can play a pivotal role in achieving an integrated and holistic governance framework for common lands.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

A common land registry goes beyond a mere public record of land parcels; it serves as a repository of shared resources, encompassing geographical data, political boundaries, and legal cadastres. While the United Kingdom has been a prominent example, diverse forms of such registries exist in countries like Uganda, Peru, and Tanzania. Although Indian states have inventoried public lands for ‘land banks’ in the past, these efforts are mainly aimed at diverting them for more productive purposes, such as urban expansion, infrastructure, industries, and the recent addition of compensatory afforestation.

In contrast, a common land registry seeks to inform resource management, facilitate decision-making, and safeguard customary rights. To this end, it can include information about land categories based on historical and customary use, precise land parcel boundaries, restrictions over land use and alienation, documentation of shared access and resource rights, along with details of ownership and management entities.

Integrating digital maps with advanced geographic information systems (GIS) can provide a more accurate understanding of on-ground situations. A prime example is Delhi’s e-Dharti GeoPortal, which combines legacy drawings like maps and lease plans into a GIS-enabled system, showcasing potential in this regard. The concept of an integrated GIS-enabled land portal, available at the national, state, district, block, and village levels, also aligns with the vision set forth by the Draft National Land Reforms Policy.

This act of opening land data for public scrutiny can strengthen social accountability and facilitate continuous improvements in its administration. Harnessing technology and enabling stakeholders to remotely access and verify data can improve transparency, reduce information asymmetry, and curtail instances of fraud. Roughly three-quarters of land-related conflicts in India revolve around common lands, often materialising as on-ground protests due to inadequate recognition of rights. An open, digital common land registry holds the potential to reshape conflict resolution by reducing ambiguities and fostering transparency. GIS applications can further deter encroachments through historical analyses, aligning with the recent observations from the Hon’ble Madras High Court. This could prove particularly valuable to dispute resolution authorities such as the Public Land Protection Cells.

Establishing the common land registry as the definitive reference point requires an understanding of the dynamic nature of common lands – where rivers shift courses, grazing occurs seasonally, and governance rules constantly evolve. State governments, vested with the constitutional power to devise their land-related policies, are best positioned to anchor the process. Nevertheless, given the existing fragmented landscape of regulations, practices, and even land categorisation within each state, the involvement of the central government becomes crucial to establish baseline standards or a guiding framework, akin to the efforts made under the centrally-sponsored Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme.

The road to the single source of truth

Recognising community stewardship is at the core of this initiative. As the primary stakeholders, communities form the foundation upon which the registry is built, making their active participation and ownership pivotal to its success. The process begins by harmonising existing documents such as the panchayat asset register, people’s biodiversity register, and other records maintained by committees entrusted with local natural resource management. In Assam, for instance, village-level committees are designated as the guardians of land resources. They oversee the preparation and update of the village ‘land bank’ and ‘knowledge bank’, ensuring resource protection.

Similar responsibilities are undertaken at various tiers of governance, as seen in Karnataka, where the taluk panchayat has to consolidate, maintain, and update a database of pertinent socio-economic information and a map of natural resources. Rajasthan elevates this with a multi-layered structure where charagah vikas samiti (pasture land development committee) at the panchayat, block, and district levels prepare records and development plans for grazing lands within their jurisdiction. At the apex, the Waste Land and Pasture Land Development Board has to create and maintain a state-wide database.

Central to the registry’s success is the principle of being a "single source of truth", housing accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information. Achieving this goal requires a multifaceted approach that spans legal, technical, administrative, and community engagement dimensions. It also needs synergy among various horizontal and vertical nodes of decision-making. Progress is already being made at the intra-departmental level within states. Assam, for instance, has launched the Integrated Land Records Management System, aimed at improving the interconnectivity among different revenue departments for property registration, land records updation, revenue collection, and transfer approvals of immovable property. It is equally imperative to enhance inter-departmental collaboration to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the registry. Key players in this initiative include the departments of land revenue, panchayati raj and rural development, forest, agriculture, information technology, and urban development.

The registry itself is not a panacea for all land-related challenges; it must coexist within a broader strategy. For instance, the process of documenting and harmonising the boundaries can unearth conflicts within and among communities. This emphasises the need to incorporate boundary negotiations, conflict resolution processes, and fostering trust among stakeholders as integral facets of registry development. Concerns surrounding digital land grabbing have also surfaced, necessitating a more robust legal regime for communal property and collective stewardship. It is also vital to continue strengthening digital infrastructure at the local level, while building capacities of panchayats to maintain registers and records, as outlined under the National Capability Building Framework.

While acknowledging these caveats, the need for evidence-based planning and sustainable resource governance also remains indisputable. The registry has the potential to evolve into the foundational data source that is used across sectors and domains. This can empower decision-makers at various levels to, together, base their choices on reliable data, thus facilitating the development of more effective, targeted policies. In this manner, the registry can transcend its role of being a mere data repository, intricately weaving together the threads of traditions and technology, resulting in a unified fabric of progress.

Why is it necessary for each farmer to dig a bore well for irrigation?

Why is it necessary for each farmer to dig a bore well for irrigation? Why can't a village come together and dig 4 bore Wells to irrigate their entire village?

What inhibits collectivisation? Why FPOs are not being promoted for providing irrigation?

Existing examples and thoughts, please.

Discussions in LinkedIn

Sunderrajan Krishnan | Executive Director at INREM Foundation, Ashoka Fellow

Groundwater irrigation in India started with community group wells. In 2006, I visited one such scheme called VASFA in Vaishali district, Bihar not too far from where the Buddha sat some thousand years back. VASFA is probably regarded as the oldest functioning group well cooperative. During that year, I also visited several such schemes in Nepal Terai and for most of them, that was the only possibility financially. That was a large scheme being promoted by Nepal govt with some multilateral funding. The AP Well , later APFAMGS is probably the largest such experiment. AP Well promoted group wells for a few years. There was this shared local pipeline experiment in Vickarabad, Telangana. Can one see the tube well companies of North Gujarat as shared groundwater - good question. It will be good to know what has happened to these , learn and prepare for ahead. Also there might have many such experiments during the collective farming era in soviet times. China had a different experiment than these

Nirmalya Choudhury | Faculty, JTSDS, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

It will be important to also learn from the PGWM experiences. I saw some interesting findings in Telengana... sometimes it might be farmers-propose- state-depose

Ravi Kumar Gupta | Sustainability & CSR | Ex- Ambuja Cements | Ex- AKDN | XISS

Group based irrigation systems and Lifting water from existing rivers through group based lift irrigation systems can also be a sustainable solution.

M Kiran Kumar

There are some good experiences from Andhra Pradesh under Indira Jala Prabha programme and APFAMGS programme

Sunil Kumar Shrivastava | Senior Technical Advisor

Many parts in India farmers pay for water for irrigation from bore well owner in the village per hour basis just like hiring tractor services. As farmers pays the money on per hour basis they tends to optimise use of water, not over irrigate their fields. 

Subrata Singh

This is optimal use, but not an institutional mechanism to manage groundwater. Need to look for institutional ways - a farmer should be able to access his/her quota.

Soumya Ranjan

Collectivisation comes with collective decision making or forced central decision making process. Our farm sector lacks this force. I'll take different examples for putting it in simple words i.e. a housing society or municipal corporation uses a single water source for drinking water. We can take the examples of JJM also. This clearly indicates the collective decision made by an agency or an institution for the single source of water supply.

Sadly, we are far behind this level of collective action in the farm sector in India even after having many FPOs and examples. This may require a strong policy reform (forced collectivisation) or huge awareness at scale for single/limited source irrigation water supply systems in villages.

If you look at the traditional water usage and sharing patterns among the farmers and communities; it's a shared resource but now became exclusively private with the changing agriculture practice and coverage. Thank you!

Soumya Ranjan

Another interesting example I have seen in Odisha and Jharkhand is "people often pay rent for water pumps @hourly basis but nobody thinks about the charges for ground water." So there is a need to shift the value preposition and it requires more deeper thoughts!

Johnson Topno

Communitization and collectivisation is the way to sustainable development.

PRAN RANJAN

Old story.. In purulia long back shgS supported several community pond supported irrigation systems to farmers group.. When banks were not ready to give credit to those groups.. Contact jamgoria sevabtata

Nishant Kumar

With dark zones spreading like wild fire in at least in places like Jharkhand isn't it time to analyse the redundancy of borewell method and the threat it poses to the water security of much of the rainfed areas? Maybe collectivization around dug wells rather than bore wells remain the only sustainable model along with groundwater education / budgeting as a common goal. 

Shiv Singh

I think this is due to the lack of shared wisdom and collective actions and lack of institutional mechanisms in place to promote democratic decision making towards sustainable approaches …well that FES is having all that in place in their operational areas 

No one actually organised FPOs to take care of larger governance processes and confined themselves to only establish and promote the value chain systems towards produce price realisation 

This might be a topic of debate that how we can ensure integration among different traditional and self evolved institutions exists in a particular habitation with the crafted institution and how to ensure the shared vision, accountability, ownership and collective approaches

Sintu Chakma

To get probable answers as to why it's challenging for any village community to get collectivised and take such actions, we need to delve deeper into the socio-economic, historical and political setups that operate in villages. For instance, 'village' is not homogenous. Several communities with varied perspectives and different socio-political and economic status live in villages. Traditional issues, you can name any (caste, class, gender etc), still exist. Ignoring these contextual factors and expecting villagers to get collectivised shall be utopian thinking. Selfless leaders, those who really envision village as a whole by overcoming own personal prejudices, are rare (such as Anna Hazare). Village is connected with the larger regional or national narratives.

If we are to really facilitate faster development in villages, interventions at multiple levels are necessary. National or regional narratives that embodies universality must be promoted and adopted. Selfless leaders within the village need to be nurtured. Village community as a whole must be sensitised about possible quantitative and qualitative benefits by getting collectivised and taking collective decisions and actions. 

Jitendra Rai

Aahar Pyne traditional irrigation system in South Bihar can be referred. 

Chandramani Sahu

Why are we so called civilised peoples digging on farmers? In the cities most of the families have an individual bore well for personal use though there is a public water supply system. 

We are also doing this. WHY???????

Jaltol & Water Security: How Do We Track Impact at a Finer Scale?

Our partnership with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) to improve the practical use of Jaltol has sharpened the need for a higher quality of metrics.

Craig Dsouza, Chiranjit Guha and Subrata Singh. 

Illustrations by Aparna Nambiar.

To budget water use for agriculture, we need evapotranspiration (ET) data. And tracking it is not easy.

To define it simply, evapotranspiration refers to a process by which water is lost from soil and plant surfaces as vapour to the atmosphere. It represents the amount of water used by a crop for growth. The higher the ET, the more water the crop consumes, signalling a problem in areas beset with water shortages.

Advances in remote sensing satellite technology have made it possible to gauge the potential evapotranspiration in an area using weather parameters such as solar radiation, air pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind. But we need data at a more granular level to be able to gauge the impact of crop water budgeting exercises and demand-side management measures such as changes in crop choice or irrigation methods.

Our partnership with the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) to improve the practical use of Jaltol — the water accounting digital tool we developed — has sharpened the need for a higher quality of metrics, and how we could work towards it. At the current stage of development, CSEI and FES teams aim to develop functionality within Jaltol that helps FES further its own organisational goals.

FES and restoring ‘groundwater commons’

FES has a mission to bring together village-level institutions to collectively restore and manage the commons. With this larger mission in mind, one of the projects that FES undertakes is Crop Water Budgeting (CWB).

CWB is focused on collective restoration and management of the ‘groundwater commons’. The idea being that village-level institutions coming together could address their crisis of depletion of their local shallow aquifer by taking collective decisions and action on which crops to grow in the post monsoon season. In more than 100 villages currently, the CWB project succeeds in bringing people together to develop a cropping plan. With the aid of tools like the CWB tool, developed by FES, these plans are reported.

Estimating the water requirement for three different crops.

However while plans are created, the project is as yet unable to easily track actual happenings on the ground, after creation of the plan. Did the crop plan progress as per expectations or not? If this insight could be garnered from remote sensing data — via tools like Jaltol — further inquiry could be undertaken to understand the reasons for success or failure.

Crop Water Requirements in Jaltol v2

In May 2022, CSEI signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FES to develop functionality within Jaltol that could serve this purpose. This led to the development of a Crop Water Requirement module within Jaltol, a feature that estimates in cubic metres the water requirement for a given cropping plan and climatic condition, as per methodology developed by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Estimates of Crop Water Requirement for the village’s ‘cropping plan’ could be compared with the village’s current levels of water consumption (i.e. evapotranspiration), estimated by SSEBOP (Simplified Surface Energy Balance), a remote sensing dataset developed by NASA.

We discussed early findings from the development of this CWR module at a two-day workshop held at FES’ head office in Anand, Gujarat, in August. The workshop aimed at refining and accelerating the process of co-creation.

In the course of our partnership with FES and development of Jaltol v2, we have a few learnings, particularly with regard to calculation of evapotranspiration.

We need finer scale data in tracking evapotranspiration

While the intention is to understand the agricultural water usage in the village, FES voiced concerns at the workshop that interpretation of SSEBOP’s evapotranspiration estimates are complicated by the fact that it doesn’t just quantify crop water consumption, but also evapotranspiration from tree cover and evaporation from water bodies in the same region.

FES doesn’t simply work on agriculture as an intervention, but also restoration of forest cover and water bodies. The impact of these interventions would result in an increase in evapotranspiration, whereas crop water budgeting would result in a decrease.

FES doesn’t work on restoration of agricultural land alone, but also forest cover and water bodies. These two water bodies would increase evapotranspiration rates, cancelling the reduced rates achieved by less water-intensive farming methods. Illustration and animation by Aparna Nambiar.

Thus to understand the impact of each intervention separately, what would be needed is to ‘downscale’ SSEBOP’s estimates of evapotranspiration from the original medium spatial resolution of 1 km to a high resolution of around 10–30 metres that can capture separately changes in evapotranspiration from tree cover, water bodies and cropping. This process would look like something as shown in the illustration below.

Instead of capturing overall evapotranspiration rates in a region, it is necessary to ‘downscale’ or sharpen our estimates further so that it becomes possible to delineate the impact of different interventions. Illustration and animation by Aparna Nambiar.

Brainstorming next steps: Can we infer historical groundwater levels from ET?

In personal financial budgeting, we consider income, expenses and savings. In a water budget, the analogy for income is rainfall, expenses is evapotranspiration, and savings is storages (primarily groundwater). It is useful, but incomplete, to only know expenses; instead for holistic planning, we also need to know income and especially savings. When savings dip too low and disaster strikes, in the form of drought, problems ensue.

FES’ work intends to finally show a material, measurable impact on savings (groundwater levels). In 2020, they built the Groundwater Monitoring Tool (GMT), a simple android app that helps villagers record groundwater levels in wells in their village.

In the short timespan of two years this tool’s usage has rapidly expanded from 10,000 villages in the first pre-monsoon season to 40,000 villages in its most recent season.

Going forward the data from this tool — which is relatively of a much better resolution than the next best data source, the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) — will enable understanding of impact of interventions at a granular, spatial scale and a multi-decadal time scale.

What if we didn’t have to wait for years until such high resolution data were available, what if we could use the medium resolution (1 km) evapotranspiration dataset and rainfall data at a similar resolution and use these to infer historical groundwater data at the same resolution of 1 km?

While evapotranspiration data at a resolution of 1 km isn’t quite enough to tell a clear story, availability of historical groundwater data at the same resolution would be a game changer.

If this data were put up against location data of past field interventions, it could help clarify their actual impact versus the intended impact and iteratively tweak interventions until the groundwater commons are restored. The teams discussed this as a possible next step.

Here’s a summary of the learnings and decisions taken at the workshop:

• Understanding the impact of their work on evapotranspiration and groundwater is vital to FES in assessing progress towards its mission of restoring the commons.
• Crop Water Requirement vs Crop Water Consumption (evapotranspiration) is a good first output, but is currently too coarse to be of use.
• We need to downscale evapotranspiration to understand its separate trajectories over tree cover, water bodies and agricultural land.
• Granular evapotranspiration data is freely available over historical timespans, since 2003 via SSEBOP, but groundwater data isn’t. Can we make an effort to also understand groundwater trajectories at the same resolution?
• Looking at both these indicators alongside data on historical interventions by FES could make for an interesting picture in where they saw success and where they didn’t and why.

Edited by Kaavya Kumar

Published on - 

https://medium.com/centre-for-social-and-environmental-innovation/jaltol-water-security-how-do-we-track-impact-at-a-finer-scale-1b3d2c2359cb