{"id":103521,"date":"2021-04-27T10:13:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T04:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=103521"},"modified":"2021-04-27T17:58:34","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T12:28:34","slug":"impact-of-groundwater-depletion-on-cropping-intensity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/impact-of-groundwater-depletion-on-cropping-intensity\/","title":{"rendered":"Impact of Groundwater Depletion on Cropping Intensity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nSypnosis:<\/strong> An International team conducted a study to understand the impact of Groundwater depletion on Cropping Intensity in India.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>About the study:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The International team studied the <\/strong>impact of groundwater depletion on cropping intensity in India.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It analysed India\u2019s three main irrigation types<\/strong> of winter cropped areas: dug wells, tube wells, canals. It also analyzed the groundwater data from the Central Ground Water Board.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Key Findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>Impact on Cropping Intensity:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>India is the world\u2019s largest consumer of groundwater. India is also the second-largest producer of wheat in the world with over 30 million hectares in the country dedicated to producing this crop.<\/li>\n<li>But with severe groundwater depletion, the cropping intensity or the amount of land planted in winter may decrease by up to 20% by 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Most Impacted Region:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The study <\/strong>found that 13% of the villages in which farmers plant a winter crop are located in critically water-depleted regions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>These villages <\/strong>may lose 68% of their cropped area in the future if access to all groundwater irrigation is lost. The losses will largely occur in northwest and central India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Alternative Sources of Irrigation:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The study analysed <\/strong>whether irrigation canals that divert surface water from lakes and rivers can make up for groundwater depletion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It found that switching to irrigation<\/strong> <strong>canal<\/strong> would favour farms close to canals, leading to unequal access.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Further,<\/strong> even if all regions that are currently using depleted groundwater for irrigation will switch to using canal irrigation, cropping intensity may decline by 7% nationally.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hence, the study suggests the adoption of <\/strong>water-saving technologies. For instance, sprinkler, drip irrigation. Also, switching to less water-intensive crops may help use the limited groundwater resources more effectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Reasons for Groundwater Depletion in India:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Green Revolution <\/strong>enabled the cropping of water-intensive crops like rice in water deficit regions such as Haryana and Punjab. It was ecologically less suitable for rice cultivation due to predominantly light soils.\n<ul>\n<li>This led to unsustainable groundwater use for irrigation and in turn groundwater scarcity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased demand for water<\/strong> for domestic, industrial, and agricultural needs together with limited surface water led to the over-exploitation of groundwater resources.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Frequent pumping of water from the ground <\/strong>without waiting for its replenishment leads to quick depletion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subsidies on electricity and high Minimum Support Price(MSP)<\/strong> for water intensive crops.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inadequate regulation of groundwater laws<\/strong> encourages the exhaustion of groundwater resources without any penalty.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Post harvest burning of crops,<\/strong> deforestation, unscientific methods of agriculture, chemical effluents from industries. It also led to pollution of groundwater making it unusable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Way Forward:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>There are enough groundwater resources with higher monsoon rainfall in eastern Indian states like Bihar.<\/li>\n<li>But due to lack of enough irrigation infrastructure, farmers are not able to make use of natural resources there.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, we need better policies in eastern India to expand irrigation and thus increase agriculture productivity. This will also release some pressure from northwestern Indian states.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/MShareArticle?OrgId=GLI8H43F9.1&amp;imageview=0\"><strong>The Hindu<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sypnosis: An International team conducted a study to understand the impact of Groundwater depletion on Cropping Intensity in India. About the study: The International team studied the impact of groundwater depletion on cropping intensity in India. It analysed India\u2019s three main irrigation types of winter cropped areas: dug wells, tube wells, canals. It also analyzed&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/impact-of-groundwater-depletion-on-cropping-intensity\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Impact of Groundwater Depletion on Cropping Intensity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,1351,9],"tags":[1332],"class_list":["post-103521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-daily-news","category-public","tag-geog_5","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700542078},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}