Utilisation of Ground Water Resources-Public versus Private Tubewells

growth. In the Indo-Gangetic plain and the deltas of the great rivers, India has some of the world's most richly endowed agricultural tracts with unrivalled ground water resources. Significant increase in agricultural production has taken place only in the western portion of the Indo-Gan- getic plain. In this area the bulk of the land is cultivated by owner farmers and sharecropping tenancy is very rare indeed. The new found agricultural prosperity of this area is based on the exploitation of ground water. Currently 80 per cent of the available ground water is tapped in this region to support multiple cropping. But in the eastern portion of the Gan- getic plain and the deltas the exploitation of ground water continues to be poor. In some of these areas the incidence of sharecropping and absentee Iandownership continues to be high. An outmodoel agrarian structure is one of the main limiting factors in the spread of the 'Green Revolution' to these areas.