{"id":98726,"date":"2021-03-31T10:24:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T04:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=98726"},"modified":"2021-03-31T11:34:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T06:04:02","slug":"sustainable-agriculture-demands-optimum-water-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sustainable-agriculture-demands-optimum-water-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Agriculture demands Optimum Water Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The declining availability and accessibility of water necessitates strengthening the water management measures. In this regard, the focus should be drawn on Sustainable Agriculture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On March 22 (World Water Day), Prime Minister launched the <\/span><b>\u2018Catch the rain Campaign\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under Jal Shakti Abhiyan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The campaign focuses on robust rainwater conservation including the use of MGNREGA funds to conserve water.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These types of campaigns are desired as water demand is going to rise in future &#8211; 843 billion cubic metres (BCM) by 2025 and 1180 BCM by 2050.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Current Situation of Water:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><b>National Estimates:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NITI Aayog\u2019s Composite <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/desmi-waste-water-management-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Water Management<\/a> Index (2019) shows 75% of Indian households don\u2019t have access to drinking water on their premises.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Central Water Commission\u2019s reassessment of water availability using space inputs (2019) shows India <\/span><b>utilises only 18%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of its annual precipitation. This means 699 billion cubic metres (BCM) is utilised, out of the total 3880 BCM received.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>International Estimates:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>UN\u2019s report on Sustainable Development Goal-6 (SDG-6)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on \u201cClean water and sanitation for all by 2030\u201d states that India achieved only 56.6 per cent of the target by 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><strong>Water management quality\u00a0Index<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has placed India at the 120th position amongst 122 countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India identifies as a<\/span><b> water-stressed country.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> As the per capita water availability declined from 5,178 cubic metre (m3)\/year in 1951 to 1,544 m3 in 2011. It is expected that it will reach 1,140 cubic metre by 2050.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Why do we need to focus on the agriculture sector?<\/b><\/h5>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Firstly, High Usage of water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The Agriculture Sector uses 78% of freshwater resources and the rest is used by industry and households.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Secondly, Skewed Irrigation Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Only about half of India\u2019s gross cropped area (198 million hectares) is irrigated. Groundwater contributes about 64 per cent, canals 23 per cent, tanks 2 per cent and other sources 11 per cent to irrigation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Thirdly, Inefficient usage of water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Groundwater is the primary source of irrigation. Various subsidies and incentives are given to support it. However, it has led to over-exploitation of water especially in the north-west region.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This helped the region to leverage maximum benefits of the green revolution at subsidized water and power tariffs.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But today the region is amongst the three highest water risk hotspots of the world along with northeastern China and the southwestern USA (California).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fourthly, Two Crops use maximum water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: As per a NABARD-ICRIER study on <\/span><b>Water Productivity Mapping<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; rice and sugarcane alone consume almost 60 % of India\u2019s irrigation water.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure id=\"attachment_98742\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-98742\" style=\"width: 642px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-98742 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Irrigation-water-productivity.png?resize=642%2C265&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"642\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Irrigation-water-productivity.png?w=642&amp;ssl=1 642w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Irrigation-water-productivity.png?resize=300%2C124&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-98742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Indian Express<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Punjab performs well inland productivity of rice but takes the last spot in terms of irrigation water productivity. This shows inefficient usage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, irrigation water productivity of sugarcane in Karnataka and Maharashtra is only 1\/3rd of Bihar and U.P.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Land Productivity means output produced per unit of land.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Irrigation water productivity means output produced per unit of irrigation water used.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Therefore, there is a\u00a0 need to realign the cropping patterns based on per unit of applied irrigation water productivity.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Way Forward<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Firstly, technologies <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">like <\/span><b>Drip irrigation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), drip with fertigation etc<\/span><b>.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be adopted.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jain Irrigation has demonstrated the potential of water conservation by growing 1 kg paddy with 842 litres using drip irrigation. This is way less than the traditional flood irrigation method that uses 3065 litres.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, drip with fertigation method for sugarcane has given a benefit-cost ratio of 2.64 in Karnataka.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Netafim, an Israel based company, has shown the potential of a family drip irrigation system at Ramthal, Karnataka.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Secondly, pricing policies for agricultural inputs like water and electricity <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">should be sustainable.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>\u201cPaani Bachao Paise Kamao\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> initiative of the Punjab government along with the World Bank and J-PAL can be a good initiative in this regard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It encourages rational use of water amongst farmers by providing them monetary incentives for saving water in comparison to their traditional usage.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Further,<\/strong> from highly subsidised policies, a paradigm change towards direct income support and greater agricultural investment is desired.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The focus should be on conserving, using and managing the water in such a way that the objective of per drop more crop is duly achieved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/india-farmers-water-supplies-irrigation-mgnrega-conserve-water-catch-the-rain-campaign-7249646\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">indianexpress\u00a0<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis:\u00a0 The declining availability and accessibility of water necessitates strengthening the water management measures. In this regard, the focus should be drawn on Sustainable Agriculture.\u00a0 Background On March 22 (World Water Day), Prime Minister launched the \u2018Catch the rain Campaign\u2019 under Jal Shakti Abhiyan. The campaign focuses on robust rainwater conservation including the use of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/sustainable-agriculture-demands-optimum-water-management\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sustainable Agriculture demands Optimum Water Management<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1427],"class_list":["post-98726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-agri_4","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98726","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\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}