Conservation credits: Payments for voluntary groundwater conservation
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Hagerty-and-Zuker-2018-policy-brief.pdf
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- Paying farmers to pump less groundwater could be a cost-effective and equitable way to reduce water and electricity consumption in irrigated agriculture.
- A pilot of conservation credits among 90 smallholder farmers in three villages in Gujarat proceeded smoothly and was received well by the communities.
- Results suggest that financial incentives may be able to substantially reduce groundwater pumping — but the range of uncertainty is large.
- A larger evaluation could reliably measure the cost-effectiveness of conservation payments