Time to make the water switch

Context: Sustainable agriculture practices will helps in conservation of water.

Demand and Supply of water in Indian Agriculture:

• As per the Central Water Commission’s reassessment of water availability using space inputs (2019), India receives a mean annual precipitation of about 3,880 billion cubic meters (BCM).
• Agriculture uses about 78% of fresh water resources.
• Groundwater contributes about 64%, canals 23%, tanks 2% and other sources 11% to irrigation.

Concerns related to water resources in India

• Low utilisation of rainwater: As per the Central Water Commission’s reassessment of water availability using space inputs (2019), India utilises only 699 BCM (18%).
• Low water quality and sanitation:
  • India failed to achieve United Nations(UN) Sustainable Development Goal-6 (SDG-6) - “Clean water and sanitation for all by 2030”, as only 56.6% of the target was achieved by 2019.
  • As per the Niti Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (2019), 75% households in India do not have access to drinking water on their premises.
• Over exploitation of groundwater: In India’s North-west, which made the region amongst the three highest water risk hotspots, the others being north-eastern China and south western United States.
• Issue of water intensive crops: Rice and sugarcane alone consume 60% of India’s irrigation water.
  • Fig.1 -while Punjab scores high on land productivity of rice, it is at the bottom with respect to applied irrigation water productivity.
  • Fig.2 -in the case of sugarcane, irrigation water productivity in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu is only 1/3rd of that in Bihar and UP.

Way forward

• Follow an appropriate strategy for conservation of rainwater: “Catch the Rain” campaign, recently launched under the government’s flagship programme, Jal Shakti Abhiyan is a step in right direction.
• Realign cropping patterns based on per unit of applied irrigation water productivity.
• Use technologies to reduce water usage for irrigation: e.g.
  • Drip irrigation: While it takes 3,065 litres of water to produce 1 kg of paddy grain (yield level 7.75 t/ha) under traditional flood irrigation, under drip, it can be reduced to just 842 litres.
  • Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) and System of Rice Intensification (SRI): Together can save 25-30 % of water compared to traditional flood irrigation.
• Put pricing policies of agri-inputs on right track:  switch from the highly subsidised price policy to direct income support on a per hectare basis. (Water and power to be priced on economic value)
• Incentivise farmers for saving water: The Punjab government, along with the World Bank, has brought “PaaniBachao Paise Kamao”  scheme of to encourage rational use of water among farmers.