Market response to declining water table in the state of Jharkhand a sample survey

Abstract

With the continuous decline in water table in the state of Bihar, centrifugal pumps are being replaced by submersible pumps because it is uneconomical and unsafe to continue with the former to lift ground water to meet the irrigation needs of crops. In order to know this shift, a market survey on the sale of six popular brands of both types of pumps was undertaken together with the sale of four major makes of smaller and larger diameter PVC pipes so as to correlate the two since larger dia. pipes are normally used for making filter in the submersible pumps. It was revealed that during the last four years, the average annual sales of centrifugal pumps has decreased by about 27 % while that of submersible pumps increased by about 78 %. And that the share of larger dia PVC pipes of major brands has increased from 60 % to 80 % over the same period. The unprecedented jump in the sale of submersible pumps was recorded in the year 2012-13 as it was linked with the steep decline in water table when area under water table depth greater than 10 m in South Bihar increased from 53 to 80 %.