Thomas Falk, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Pratiti Priyadarshini, Subrata Singh, and Rajesh Mittal. 2022. Social Learning in Games: Stimulating institutional and Behavior Change in Relation to Water Use in India. PowerPoint presentation given during Stakeholder Consultation with Agriculture Department Bureaucrats from Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, India, 4pm IST, August 4, 2022 (virtual).

1. Stakeholder Consultation
on
Using experiential learning
methods & tools to
strengthen community water
management

2. • 13th most water stressed country in the world.
• 60% of irrigated agriculture & 85% of drinking
water supplies dependent on groundwater.
• 70% of water resources is contaminated.
• Water rights attached to land rights.
• Rural-urban inequities; socio-economic
inequities within the village.
Context

3. Opportunities
Political
commitment
Acts, policies &
judicial pronouncements
Programme
architecture
Funds
Available

4. Water as Commons
• High subtractability and low excludability
• Multiple users and uses (multiple decision makers)
• Multiple resource systems
• Upstream & downstream interactions

5. • High investments on improving surface water supply,
but many communities fail to sustain the benefits over
time.
• Water easily depletes if there is no effective coordination
among users to ensure provision and regulate
withdrawals.
• Blueprint rules introduced in a top-down manner have
not made much impact.
• Research & practice demonstrates that self-governance
by communities can be very effective for sustainable
management of water and other shared natural
resources. But examples of such efforts are limited and
diffused.
What are the innovations we need to bring about to improve water management?

6. Social Learning in Games:
Stimulating Institutional and Behavior Change in Relation to
Water Use in India
Thomas Falk, Ruth Meinzen-Dick
Pratiti Priyadarshini, Subrata Singh,
Rajesh Mittal

7. Water as Commons
Water as commons:
• One person’s use reduces availability for others
• Low excludability, boundaries difficult to establish
• Fugitive resource—hard to see where it goes
Further challenges of groundwater:
• Low visibility
• Lack of understanding of resource dynamics
• Difficult to identify aquifer boundaries, esp.
in hard rock
• “Traditional knowledge” insufficient with
rapidly developing pumping technology
• State regulation not enough
Need for collective action to manage the resource

8. Community water management
• Technical tools to improve understanding of water resources, but what
motivation to use them?
• Community water management programs often not sustained
• Social innovations
• From “teaching” to “social learning”

9. Experiential Learning
• Can games be used to strengthen collective resource management?
• Offer safe environment to experience
shared challenge
• Simulate several seasons in short time
• Encourage discussion of situation
• Try different institutional arrangements
(Rules)
• Shape “mental models” and
understanding of relationships
(biophysical and social)
Requires understanding of behavior

10. Games +
Tools
Community
Rules
(Surface & GW)
Groundwater
Use
Groundwater
Levels
Prices
Government
Policy
Watershed
Management
Programs Maintenance
of Surface
Structures
Groundwater
Recharge
Rainfall
Community
Understanding

11. Groundwater game
• Groups of 5 men or women (separately)
• Choose crop
• A takes 1 unit water, gives 2 units money
• B takes 2 units water, gives 3 units money
• 2 units (total) for domestic water
• 7 units recharge
• See effect on water table over multiple “years”
• First set of rounds: no communication, individual
choice
• Second set of rounds: communication allowed

12. Community Debriefing
• Full village invited
• Basics of game described
• Share general game results
• No specifics about individuals
• Small group discussions led by game
participants
• Engage community in discussions
about:
How this relates to own
experiences and challenges farming
Lessons and insights participants
gained from the experience
Possible solutions

13. • Players individually decide on
contributions to dam
maintenance;
• Benefits from dam depend on
total investment of all group
members;
• Dam benefit equally
distributed amongst all
players; OR in sequential order
• Community debriefing.
Net return per
ha in INR
Water requirement per
ha in cum
Wheat 15000 5500
Gram 13000 3000
Surface Water Game

14. Outcomes of Games
Game States Year # habitations Outcomes
Groundwater
pilot
Andhra Pradesh 2013,
2014
17 Some effect on attitudes
Communities more likely to adopt water registers &
rules for groundwater *
Surface water Rajasthan
Madhya Pradesh
2016
2017
30
60
Communities more likely brought swelling water
conflicts to the table and engaged in dam
maintenance activities *
Groundwater
expansion
Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh
2014-
2019
214 Total 3747 farmers adopted less water consumptive
crops or varieties and irrigation scheduling to save
water**
*Compared to randomly selected control communities where game has no been played
**Compared to farmers’ reported behavior, prior to the games
Taken from India to Ethiopia and Ghana starting in 2021

15. • As part of the Scaling up Experiential Learning Tools for Sustainable Water Governance in India, we plan to rollout
the experiential learning package in the five states directly and indirectly through partner organizations between
2020 and 2023.
• Between 2020 and 2022 we rolled out the full package of experiential learning tools in 926 communities directly
and 651 communities indirectly

16. Rajasthan
Semi-arid, Dark Zone, agro-
pastoralist communities, mixed farming
- Reservation of surface water
sources for livestock drinking &
for groundwater recharge
- Ban on drilling of borewells
- Sharing water from wells
- No use of soap/detergent in
water sources reserved for
livestock
AP & Karnataka
Drought prone, erosion of traditional tank
management systems, intensive agriculture
- Revival of traditional neeruganti system
of tank management
- No encroachment of tanks & feeder
channels
- Focus on groundwater recharge
- Crop decisions based on water levels
(crop holidays during severe drought
years)
MP & Odisha
Forest dominated, degraded uplands
resulting in siltation & drying of streams,
agriculture and forest dependent tribal
communities
- Fishing rights for traditional fisher folks
- Community contribution for de-siltation
of channels
- Rules regarding opening/closing of gates
of Stop Dams and for water allocation
• Water sharing
• De-linking land rights and water rights
• Federation to discuss upstream-
downstream issues
• Evolving decisions based on water
numeracy

17. Importance of follow up tools-
Crop Water Budgeting
• Demand side water management strategy
• CWB helps in the Estimation of total water requirement and
water available and help farmers in planning for crops.
• Though effective, it’s uptake among communities has been low
owing to the technical complexities in estimation.
• Our approach to CWB has been to place community at the
center (from data collection to estimation and communication)
and use it as tool that aids communities in making informed
decisions.
• CWB tool developed as an easy-to-use Android based
application) and generates actionable information
• Focuses on conjunctive use of water- both Surface water and
Ground water.
• Rabi crop planning.
Download Android Based Application from https://cwb.fes.org.in/

18. Crop Water Budgeting – Glimpses of the Process
Data collection
Estimation of
Water availability
and Requirement
Presentation and
Communication of
Data to community
Revised Estimation
based on plans
submitted by
communities

19. Data Collection
• Rainfall data
• Recharge Potential from GEC norms
Secondary Data (in-built
in app)
• Information about surface and ground
water sources in kharif and Rabi
• Details of Crops grown, irrigation(pumping
house, irrigation required etc.)
Primary Data Collection
through community
participation

20. Estimation: Water Availability vs Water Requirement

21. Communication and Planning- Crop Water
Budgeting Dashboard and Discussion
• Prepared & presented before the community
• Along with CWB estimation Rainfall pattern, cropping
pattern, crop wise irrigation requirement, access to
irrigation etc. are included in the dashboard
• Help in triggering the discussion around water & crops
amongst the community
• If there is a deficit in water availability for the present
cropping plan, the community members discuss
possible crop changes to avert the situation of water
deficit. The exercise generates debate and discussion
on water as a collective resource and the need for
better governance.

22. Revised Estimation for water usage for Rabi based on
community planning

23. 538
774
300
244
307
99
258
214
627
1062
464
404
395
152
350
405
89
288
165
159
88
53
92
191
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Intercrops (Wheat, Jowar etc.), Mandal, Bhilwara
Wheat, Mandal, Bhilwara
Cotton- CWB, Yavatmal
Cotton+Redgram- CWB, Yavatmal
Wheat- CWB, Yavatmal
Gram- CWB, Yavatmal
Jowar- CWB, Yavatmal
Tomato, Chittoor
Water Used & saved (Litre/ Kg of Prodcue)
Locations
&
Crops
Water Used Before and After Crop Water Budgeting
Rabi - 2019-20
Water Saved
Water used Before CWB
Water used After CWB

24. Bathinigaripalle, Andhra Pradesh
Understanding links between human actions and
resource outcomes

25. Backdrop
• Bathnigaripalle is a village in Gurramvandlapalle
Panchayat of Peddmanyam Mandal in
Annamayya district (erstwhile Chittoor).
• Village has 66 households, 550 Acres of total
geographical area.
• Major sources of livelihood - Agriculture,
Livestock, Wage labour, NTFP collection, …
• Major crops – Groundnut, Tomato, vegetables
• Challenges - frequent droughts, withering of
crops due to inadequate rainfall, changing crop
profiles, falling income from agriculture
• Institutional presence - Bathinigaripalle Vana
Samrakshana Samiti

26. Comprehensive mapping of the bore wells

27. Involving community to trace the resource usage and dependency using -
Trend Line as a tool
• Climatic factors
• Shifting cropping patterns
• Changes in the surface and sub
surface water resources
• Role of external factors like -
Market, Technology, financial
considerations
• ‘Where did we go wrong’ and “
Way forward”

28. Using the advanced GIS tools to map Hydrological flows
• Recharge zones, discharge zones
• Bore wells are close to each other
• Securing recharge zones

29. Water game – a platform for community for collective action
• Has made the ground water from invisible
resource to visible resource.
• An awareness that individual extraction behavior
has an impact on the availability of the resource
for the rest.
• Optimal usage of the resource usage is liked with
cropping choices that are made.
• An awareness that water as resource has
multiple usages – Domestic use, Agriculture,
Livestock etc.
• A need for a commonly agreed rules for
governance the resource.
• At the end evolved the idea of “Groundwater as
Commons”

30. Tools for Ecological Threshold: Crop water Budgeting
Restoration: Consumption less than recharge, to increase
storage and raise groundwater levels
Balance and Buffer: Match consumption to recharge to
stop depletion. Draw down reserves in dry years and
replenish in wet years.
Steady Depletion: Manage drawdown of groundwater
stocks to increase lifetime and productivity.
Race to the Bottom: Uncoordinated scramble. Whoever
has deeper well and bigger pump grabs more benefits.
Water
demand
106,436 Cum
Recharge
81,457 Cum.
• To know the stock of the resource
• Matching the resource availability with the
demands on the resource
• Reveals the resource status - triggering
further action in this case - water balance
was showing the “Deficit”.
• Collective thinking helps in addressing the
larger level issues.

31. Dash board presentation – Information is key to trigger discussion
amongst the community

32. Water Demand
106,436 CuM.
Water Recharge
81,457 CuM.
Deficit = 24,979 CuM.
Proposed crops
Groundnut 37.4 Acres
Tomato 9.5 Acres
Grown crops
Groundnut 30 Acres
Tomato 0.5 Acres
Water Demand
62,324 CuM.
Water Recharge
81,457 CuM.
Surplus = 19,133 CuM.
Enabling
real
time
scenario
planning-
for
dynamic
cropping

33. Outcome
• Evolving the Intervention plans - securing the
public investments in regevunating the
resources
• Farmers are encouraged to adopting package
of practices, water saving technologies, natural
farming practices etc.
Evolved rules
Minimizing the Paddy crop area under
borewells
Prohibiting the extraction of water from
surface water bodies that cater to needs of
the livestock.
Informed Crop choice should be decided
collectively
Moratorium on digging new Bore wells.

34. Thank you

35. Suitability tool

36. Resources
• Project website:https://www.ifpri.org/project/scaling-
experiential-learning-tools-sustainable-water-governance-india
• Commoning the Commons: A Sourcebook to Strengthen
Management and Governance of Water as Commons
https://fes.org.in/resources/sourcebooks,manuals,atlases-&-
ecoprofiles/manuals/strengthening_governance_and_managem
ent_of_water_as_commons.pdf
• Meinzen-Dick, R., M. Janssen, S. Kandikuppa, R. Chaturvedi, K.
Rao and S. Theis. 2018. Playing Games to Save Water: Collective
Action Games for Groundwater Management in Andhra
Pradesh, India. World Development 107(July):40-53.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X1
8300445
• Falk, T., Kumar, S., Srigiri, S., 2019. Experimental games for
developing institutional capacity to manage common water
infrastructure in India, Agricultural Water Management. 221:
260–269
• HTTP://GAMESFORSUSTAINABILITY.ORG/PRACTITIONERS/
• http://g
amesforsustainability.org/2015/12/05/groundwater-game-
for-practitioners/
• https://gamesforsustainability.org/practitioners/#game-
on-managing-check-dams

37. Thank you