This should be done in tandem with institutional reforms to strengthen the effectiveness of market incentives although by virtue of raising the opportunity cost of offering exemptions or forgoing fee collection, raising prices will in itself strengthen the incentive to ensure that all water users meet their financial obligations. In response to water shortages farmers often resort to sinking tube wells, which facilitate access to groundwater, increasingly on a private rather than collective basis. The shift towards private ownership of these resources, which offer a finite supply of water, appears to promote more efficient as well as higher value added farming methods (Wang et al.,