of Irrigation Well Failures Farmers in Hard Rock Areas of India N Nagaraj M G Chandrakanth Equity in access to groundwater is of concern as groundwater offers considerable potential to enhance land productivity. In addition to the existing inequity in landholdings, the inequity in access to groundwater further widens the skewness in assets and income distribution. The food security and equity was well provided by dug well irrigation. The failure of dug wells, shift to high water-high value crops and policy instruments like soft loans to sink wells and zero marginal cost for electrical power to lift groundwater, disturbed the equity in well irrigation, and paved the way for the use of expensive technologies for rapid harness of groundwater. As a result, the dug-cum-borewell and borewells contributed to interand intra-generational inequity, even though they increased the overall growth in agriculture.