HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL TARGETING UNDER WATER RATIONING
POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURAL PUNJAB

Suhana Grewal

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i02.003

Title: HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL TARGETING UNDER WATER RATIONING POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURAL PUNJAB
Authors: Suhana Grewal
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Publication Date: February 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i02.003
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Suhana Grewal University of Edinburgh
MLA 8 Grewal, Suhana. "HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL TARGETING UNDER WATER RATIONING POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURAL PUNJAB." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 2, Feb. 2026, pp. 411-417, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i02.003. Accessed Feb. 2026. APA 6 Grewal, S. (2026, February). HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL TARGETING UNDER WATER RATIONING POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURAL PUNJAB. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(2), 411-417. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i02.003 Chicago Grewal, Suhana. "HOUSEHOLD-LEVEL TARGETING UNDER WATER RATIONING POLICY: EVIDENCE FROM AGRICULTURAL PUNJAB." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 2 (February 2026), 411-417. Accessed February, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i02.003.
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ABSTRACT: Uniform water rationing remains a dominant policy response to groundwater scarcity in Punjab’s agricultural sector. While administratively simple, such policies overlook substantial heterogeneity in farm structure, crop choice, and realized productivity across households, leading to misallocation and avoidable output losses. This paper develops a household-level matching framework that ranks agricultural households for priority access to irrigation under rationing regimes using a small set of observable characteristics. Drawing on microdata from the 77th Round of the Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (2019), restricted to Punjab, the study constructs a composite heterogeneity score combining realized crop output, cropping intensity, and land fragmentation. Households are classified into priority tiers that can be directly mapped onto differentiated rationing rules, such as variations in pumping hours. Rather than offering causal identification, the framework provides a transparent, low-cost screening tool that can improve allocative efficiency without increasing total water extraction. The approach highlights how modest reallocation within existing rationing regimes can recover productivity gains while preserving equity objectives.

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