Summary
Punjab's latest groundwater assessment puts extraction at 152% of annual availability, the highest in the country. The CGWB's 2023 assessment classified 114 of the state's 153 blocks as over-exploited. Irrigation for rice and wheat uses about 25 billion cubic metres a year.
Research published in the Economic and Political Weekly and in Discover Sustainability finds that marginal farmers use water more efficiently, but they cannot afford deeper tube wells, so they buy water from wealthier landowners.
The Hindu's editorial argues that the state should protect smallholders' access and incomes, make additional extraction prohibitively expensive and redirect part of the power subsidy toward cultivators, including tenants.
WHY IN NEWS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
On September 23, 2026, The Hindu published an editorial drawing on the latest Dynamic Groundwater Assessment and recent academic studies of groundwater markets in Sangrur and Barnala. It argues that Punjab's water crisis is now widening inequality among farmers as well as damaging the environment.
It highlights the low enrolment in the Pani Bachao, Paisa Kamao scheme and calls for subsidies to support cultivators rather than pump owners.
Standard News
When the Water Table Falls, Small Farmers Pay Twice
Punjab faces a choice that looks like one between ecology and livelihood. Saving its aquifers means making extraction costly and moving farmers away from paddy. Protecting its smallholders seems to mean leaving free power and assured paddy procurement alone. What the data show is that falling water tables are already hurting smallholders and transferring their income to large landowners.
How depletion becomes inequality Punjab extracts 152% of its annual groundwater recharge and in 2023 the CGWB classified 114 of its 153 blocks as over-exploited.
As the water table drops, farmers need deeper borewells and more powerful submersible pumps, which cost more money up front. Large farmers can pay that cost. Smallholders often cannot. They end up buying water from neighbours who own deep tube wells, which is an informal market with no regulation.
The Economic and Political Weekly study cited by The Hindu finds that marginal farmers use water more efficiently, yet they are the ones who pay for access. The Discover Sustainability study of Sangrur and Barnala finds that larger farms earn higher returns but produce less crop per unit of groundwater used for paddy.
So the farmers who waste the least water pay the most for it and the farmers who use it least efficiently earn from selling it.
The case for caution There is a serious argument for moving slowly.
The rice-wheat system has assured procurement and alternative crops do not yet have reliable prices, storage or processing. Charging for power or restricting paddy abruptly could push indebted smallholders into distress faster than any aquifer would. Free farm power is also politically entrenched in Punjab and a policy that cannot get past that is not a practical policy.
Where
TAN stands TAN's position is that ecological rescue and smallholder protection can be done together, by changing who the subsidy benefits. Today the power subsidy goes to whoever owns a pump. The more water a farmer extracts, the more subsidy he effectively receives and the largest pump owners gain most.
The state should redirect part of that subsidy to cultivators directly, including tenants, while making extraction beyond a threshold expensive. Pani Bachao, Paisa Kamao already works on this principle, paying farmers for power they do not use, but enrolment is low.
A redesigned scheme would help both goals. Smallholders would get income support that is not tied to how much water they pump and extraction would carry a price at the margin, where it currently carries none. Collective irrigation infrastructure owned by groups of small farmers would weaken the water-selling position of large pump owners.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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Punjab extracts 152% of its annually available groundwater, according to the latest assessment.
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The CGWB's 2023 assessment classified 114 of Punjab's 153 blocks as over-exploited, about 74.5% of the total.
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Irrigation in Punjab uses about 25 billion cubic metres of groundwater a year.
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The Central Ground Water Board works under the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
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Under the Pani Bachao, Paisa Kamao scheme, run by PSPCL, farmers receive cash for electricity they save below a set quota.
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Sangrur and Barnala are districts where groundwater markets between large and small farmers have been studied.
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The rice-wheat system in Punjab expanded after the Green Revolution with assured procurement and subsidised power.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
The case for putting the aquifer first through extraction pricing and crop diversification, set out at full strength.
The case for putting smallholder livelihoods first, including the procurement and market-risk arguments that make paddy the rational choice for small farmers today.
How free power combined with falling water tables creates a groundwater market that moves income from small farmers to large ones.
TAN's position on redirecting the power subsidy to cultivators and the evidence that would change it.
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