Innovating in a dynamic technical context - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 109

electrical connection and install a small pump. When they got the permit, they
still had to pay the cost of wires, poles and a transformer for their connection,
as well as the pump. The permit system was justified as a means of avoiding
over exploiting groundwater, but in practice it was fraught with rent-seeking
and corruption (Mukherji, 2008).
Researchers in project PN42 identified areas, called safe blocks, where there
was no risk of depleted groundwater because of high annual recharge.
Researchers then informed policymakers how costly the permit system was.
They showed that it was an obstacle to the government priority to foster higher
productivity and expand the irrigated area in West Bengal. The result was a
policy change in which farmers in 301 safe groundwater blocks no longer
needed permits. Their pumps must be less than 5 horsepower and discharge less
than 30m 3 /hour. The state electricity authority made electrical connections less
expensive by connecting farmers for a fixed fee of Rupees1000-30,000
(US$16-475, September 2013) depending on the connected load (PN42 and
PN60) (Mukherji et al., 2012).
The result has been rapid growth in the use of small pumps and irrigated
farming in West Bengal. The lead researcher, Aditi Mukherji, received the
Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application for this work
(Mukherji, 2012a).
What was the role of the CPWF? The Government of India for decades had
prioritized intensive farming irrigated with groundwater in the eastern Ganges.
Research identified safe zones, quantified the cost of misguided policies and
used this knowledge to engage with policymakers. The projects built on
previous research of PN42 in Phase 1 and PN60 in the BFPs. The research
continues in the International Water Management Institute with support from
the Gates Foundation. Again, CPWF was one partner among many, but
contributed to a process of innovation created by research.
Summary
A scan of the 120 CPWF projects listed in the Appendix shows that more than
30 projects focused on technical innovations and were also designed for longer-
term, self-propelled social processes of innovation.
Technologies and institutions
Experience from CPWF projects is that technical innovation and institutional
change often go together, and that one without the other does not usually reach
outcomes. In discussing the topic, we touch on issues discussed in Chapter 6.
Farms and markets
Even in straightforward projects on new varieties and changed fertilizer use,
technical change was linked to institutional change. Project PN2 in Eritrea