Environment

IAS Parliament 7 years

KEY POINTS

Given India’s per capita water availability, it is natural to conclude that it has a huge water shortage and it is one of the biggest problems for India.
But, India’s biggest problem is not that of water-shortage but it is of rampant water-waste in agriculture that consumes around 78% of India’s total freshwater resources.
Just rice and sugarcane consume more than 60% of the irrigation water in the country while occupying just around 24% of the total gross cropped area.
Add to this the fact, in the case of sugar, the current method of flood-irrigation results in an application efficiency of just 65%, or a water loss of 35%.
Meanwhile, around half the land in the country is not irrigated.
In Maharashtra, to put this in better perspective, sugarcane is grown on 4% of the state’s land but uses two-thirds of the water.

Suggestions

Water-scarce country like India needs to move away from looking at land productivity to decide what crops to grow, but to look at water productivity.
Shift in areas - Experts have recommended shifting rice cultivation in water-scarce areas like Punjab to Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, etc.
Sugarcane cultivation to the traditional sub-tropical regions like UP and Bihar instead of Maharashtra.
Drip Irrigation - It is also recommended to use drip irrigation which can increase the water use efficiency.
Drip-irrigation also reduces the consumption of other inputs like fertilizers.
Proper pricing of water and the electricity used for pumps would change the structure quite quickly.
It may result in areas moving towards appropriate crop productions. Punjab, for instance, may move towards cultivating maize that is more appropriate for it.
Marketing Support - Shifting farmers to new crops will also require a lot of marketing support. For instance, rice is procured by FCI but maize is not.
So, the government has to consider solutions like direct cash transfers, among others.