The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) had implemented a project titled North Gujarat Sustainable Groundwater Initiative (NGI) for 6 years (2002-2008) under one of its prestigious programmes called IWMI-Tata water policy research programme. The project was supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), Mumbai. In the beginning, the project was implemented on an action research mode. The aim was to test a variety of locally viable, supply and demand side interventions in water management with the aim of establishing local regimes for sustainable groundwater management in north Gujarat region through.

The project during its pilot phase tested a range of physical interventions in agricultural water management including those for augmenting local recharge of groundwater, and reducing the demand for water for irrigation. It subsequently identified a set of interventions that, on a sustainable basis, could reduce the water use in agriculture and improve groundwater balance in the region, without causing adverse impacts on farm economy and rural livelihoods.

During the second phase, the project successfully up-scaled these interventions in 12 talukas of north Gujarat area through: widespread water literacy programmes; extension activities, including on-farm demonstrations of various technologies and practices, field to field contacts of farmers, exposure trips for farmer groups, cross visits and market demonstrations of various water saving technologies; documentation and wider dissemination of the learnings and experiences through workshops and farmer conventions.