This article examines trust and cooperation between farming communities using groundwater resource for irrigation in northern Gujarat. Trust and cooperation play a crucial role in building social capital, which is critical for good governance and economic development. Recent studies have focused on whether socio-economic and demographic differences between individuals affect degree of trust and cooperation. This study reports survey evidence on trust and cooperation from 150 farm households from 50 self-governed tubewell organizations across five villages in northern Gujarat. The field data is analysed in a regression-based quantitative framework. The major finding is that difference in economic and demographic attributes of individuals is likely to impact trust and cooperation. While ethnic (caste) heterogeneity has no significant impact on trust and cooperation behaviour at a micro level, the demographic attribute (age) of an individual has significant influence on trusting behaviour. The household data shows that at the individual level, trusting and cooperating behaviour varies with economic and demographic attributes of individuals. Policies aiming at economic development of farming communities need to consider these variables with other conditions under which trust and cooperation become imperative.
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