Monsoon rain is crucial for agriculture in India, as only 46 per cent of cultivable area of the country is under irrigation. So, for the farming community, the monsoon means survival. If it falls, or if the distribution of rain is abnormal, it immediately reduces the earning capacity of the rural India and food grain production of the country. A good monsoon can put agriculture on a sound footing, as June-September rainfall decides areas under cultivation for major crops such as rice, pulses, oil seeds, cotton, etc. Another advantage of a normal monsoon would be to replenish our ground-water system, which is, of late, vastly overexploited.
India has 16 per cent of the total population of the world, but the country has only 4 per cent of the water resources on the Earth. Further, the country has only 2.5 per cent of the area, out of the total geographical area of the globe. The country receives approximately 1100 millimeter average rainfall annually, that too, irregularly and only during limited period of two to three months. Two-thirds of all the available water in India goes to irrigation of crops. This use of water is massively unsustainable.
Today, more than 22 million Indian farmers tap underground reserves to water their fields, and two-thirds of the total annual crops are irrigated with underground water. This water is now rapidly running out and unlike the rivers, it will not be quickly replaced. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), part of a worldwide network of agricultural research centers funded by the World Bank, estimated that about 250 cubic kilometers of water are abstracted for irrigation each year. This is at least 100 cubic kilometers more than the rains put back. As every year passes, the aquifers continue to get depleted.
Agriculturists are of the opinion that watershed development for raising yields of rain-fed crops and widening of seed revolution to cover oil seeds, pulses, fruits and vegetables is the urgent need of the hour. Farming system research to develop location specific technologies must be intensified in the rain-fed areas immediately. Strategy to make grey areas green will lead to second Green Revolution, which would demand a three-pronged strategy – watershed management, hybrid technology and small farm mechanisation.
According to an estimate of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), if we continue to exploit our ground water indiscriminately, as we presently do, then in the next 20 years, more than 18 states of the country may face acute shortage of groundwater. In India, out of the 40 crores hectare metre of rainfall and snowfall received in a year, only 17 crores and 8 lakh hectare metre of water is properly tapped by the soil due to land topography and other problems due to impervious surfaces that make up much of today’s urban as well as semi-urban landscape which interfere with the hydrologic cycle and prevent the natural infiltration process from occurring.
In the last few decades, farmers in India have drilled approximately 30 million tube wells into the saturated strata beneath their fields. Every year, farmers bring another million wells into service, most of them outside the control of the State irrigation authorities. Indian farmers have invested some US $12 billion in the procurement of new pumps, but they constantly have to drill deeper to keep pace with falling water table.
The problem is severe and keeping in view the fact that agriculture is the backbone of our country, the question now is what are the ways to come out of this crisis. In recent years, many state governments have been constructing thousands of small dams across riverbeds in a bid to replenish water harvesting as a thrust area and some centrally sponsored schemes are already in operation. The Central government has also accelerated continuous higher budgetary support in recent years to rainwater harvesting and watershed management schemes to recharge our underground water sources.
Rainwater harvesting needs to be a focused area for sustainable agricultural production, but agriculturists point out that attention should also be paid for efficient management of the available water resources. There is need to encourage modern methods of irrigation like drip-irrigation. Micro management is also needed for efficient use of the irrigation water. Farmers should avoid one-time flood irrigation in their fields and instead should give more number of irrigation at intervals for higher output. Weeds should be regularly managed effectively in annual and perennial crops. Moisture conservation techniques like mulching should be used in crops. Flood management is another key area to work on so that we can create irrigation potential and recharging of groundwater aquifers.
India will be required to produce more and more from limited land and water resources. Alarming rates of groundwater depletion and serious environmental and social problems of some of the major irrigation projects on one hand, and the multiple benefits of irrigation water in enhancing production and productivity, food security and poverty alleviation, are too well known to be further elaborated. All in all, introduction of appropriate water saving technologies, is the need of the hour.
Indeed, effective economic and management policies are needed to prevent the crisis that threatens India in the coming years. Good management of the country’s water resources will effectively reduce the amount of pollution and over-exploitation that is currently plaguing our surface, ground and coastal waters. The resultant improvement in water quantity and quality also have repercussions in terms of ameliorating human health as well as environmental protection.
(The writer is a freelance journalist).
