Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
At some point, the electricity tariff has to be set at the
level, consistent
with sound regulatory policies. This adjustment of the electricity price could be
the most powerful motivator, but still other ways to incentivize the farmers to
switch to less water-intensive practices may be necessary.
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right
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The farmers and other stakeholders will have to be sensitized and provided with
sound information for decision-making.
The right change agents should be identi
ed.
To the extent possible, not only the farmers, but also the change agent(s) should
be provided with the incentives or payments on a results basis.
Depending on the extent of the impact of the power overconsumption in terms
of availability of electricity to other users, reducing power consumption could
free up enough electricity production capacity to delay the construction of new
power plants. The economic impact of such delay could be assessed and used as
the basis for a mechanism to secure funding for the incentive scheme.
Along with the independent veri
cation of results mandatory for the RBF
scheme, a data collection and monitoring scheme should be set up to measure
continually the effect of the RBF intervention (not only on the aquifer) and
con
rm the economic impact mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as in
other areas like food production and farmers income. The same mechanism
funding the incentives scheme should pay for the cost of this data collection and
monitoring scheme.
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circumstances could be the following: The scheme will start with a pilot scheme
supported by a subsidy fund, which will be funded with a grant from an interna-
tional development agency and, if possible, matching funds from the national
government.
Two kinds of change agents will be organized; on the
One of several potential ways to organize the scheme, depending on the speci
side, the extension
services of a local university would advise farmers on the most suitable technology
and/or crop(s) that could lead them to reduce irrigation water consumption and
potentially higher yields or crop values. The same (or a different) institution would
certify vendors of the different technologies that could be used to reach the pursued
objective. These vendors would compete to gain the farmers as customers. The
farmers will be informed through awareness campaigns and workshops of the
proposed scheme and the options available to them.
During the start-up of the project, while the information and sensitization
campaigns are carried out, the IVA will conduct a baseline study to assess, if it was
not done during project design, the volumes of water extracted from the aquifer in
the pilot area and the water levels in the aquifer and estimate power consumption.
That is, provided it is not being measured by the power utility (which would
probably be the case given that the electricity is being provided free of charge).
The incentive scheme could be set in a way that the farmers will get a com-
mercial credit from the vendors to install the new technology and the farmers will
pay a reduced price for the hardware and installation of the new irrigation system.
The rest of the price of the system will be paid for by the subsidy fund.
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