Often, as a frantic response to problems of water scarcity and consequent hardships faced by both urban and communities, India has invested heavily in rainwater harvesting. Unlike investment in large water resource systems, these efforts, by and large, lack hydrological planning and sound...

We approach the issue of water productivity in agriculture by identifying five sets of drivers of change. We find that irrigation efficiencies at the field level can result in real water savings under certain conditions, but that small farmers in most of South Asia and Africa have little...