Decrease in groundwater levels and the inadequate irrigation capacity of canals could reduce India’s winter crop acreage by up to 20 per cent, a new study has warned.

Indian farmers have been battling depleting groundwater since the 1960s, when an increased reliance on irrigation wells drastically expanded production of water-intensive crops like wheat and rice.

It was earlier believed that a shift to irrigation canals, which divert surface water from lakes and rivers, is one way to overcome this shortfall. However, the study by researchers based in the US and India concludes that a switch to canal irrigation will not completely compensate for the loss of groundwater in Indian agriculture. It notes that even if all Indian regions currently using depleted groundwater switch to canal irrigation, winter crop acreage could still decline by 7 per cent nationwide and by 24 per cent in the most severely affected locations. Furthermore, in the worst case scenario, if farmers keep using groundwater without access to irrigation canals, the winter crop acreage could reduce by 20 per cent across the country.

“Our results highlight the critical importance of groundwater for Indian agriculture and rural livelihoods, and we were able to show that simply providing canal irrigation as a substitute irrigation source will likely not be enough to maintain current production levels in the face of groundwater depletion,” said Meha Jain, a study author and assistant professor at the University of Michigan, in a statement.

Source - https://theprint.in