Can Climate Smart Agriculture Relieve Groundwater Depletion?

Every year World Water Day is celebrated globally with different themes and objectives. The World Water Day 2022 focuses on ‘Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible’.

Groundwater is used extensively in the agriculture sector, and its management and sustainable usage are much more complex than surface water management. ‘Groundwater modelling’ is an essential aspect while studying water sustainability that is equivalent to hydrogeology and sustainable soil management.

Understanding The Nexus

In the Indian context, the irrigation sector uses the highest water (~ 80%). As much as the ‘green revolution’ of the 70s has been a successful venture in making the country food secure, it has been equally detrimental to the environment.

With extensive usage of tubewells and making electricity free for the farmers, there has been indiscriminate groundwater abstraction and saline water intrusion in states like Punjab. As a result, the water table has depleted, but due to the excessive use of pesticides and insecticides, there has been a rise in cancer due to carcinogens in the food chain.

The famous ‘cancer train’ from Bhatinda to Bikaner has been one of the significant health interventions in recent times that carry cancer patients from Punjab to Rajasthan. Yet all these interventions have not made the proper noise as they should have.

On the other hand, groundwater laws are archaic and deeply associated with land laws and allow landowners to extract as much water as they want. Therefore, equitable distribution of groundwater always remains a question, and there is more water usage than recharge, further creating water stress on the aquifers.

In states like Haryana, treated wastewater is used for irrigating agricultural fields because of the prevalent water stress. In this water-energy-food and ecosystem nexus, using the right amount of water makes a lot of difference as it is intrinsically related to water management to avert disasters.

But, how much water is the right amount of water? This paradox of using too little or too much water is referred to as the Goldilocks dilemma.

Climate-Smart Agriculture

Water and agriculture are state subjects, and electricity is a concurrent subject, and these three are closely interlinked. A need to decarbonise irrigation has been a primary focus under the ambit of ‘green economy,’ which focuses on replacing existing diesel pumps with solar irrigation pumps while being connected to the on-grid power system (being connected to the utility grid).

Another aim is to double farmers’ income by allowing them to sell electricity back to the grid. This can go on to solve the agrarian distress by lifting the farmers out of debt traps and curbing the socio-psychological stress factors that compel farmers to die by suicide. However, for this to come to fruition, solar power infrastructure must be considered. These may be in solar panels, suitable capacity pumps, uninterrupted or the stipulated power supply, correct crop selection, especially drought-resistant crops or crops that consume less water, etc.

Drip and sprinkler irrigation will have to be implemented on a greater scale. Component C of the PM KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) aims to solarise 10 lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps.

Individual farmers with grid-connected agriculture pumps will be assisted in solarising their pumps under this Component. The farmer will be able to use the solar power generated to satisfy their irrigation demands, with any extra solar power sold to DISCOMs at a pre-determined cost.

Gujarat, in this case, has been performing well when it comes to implementing solar policy in the context of agriculture. Yet, a water-energy relationship needs to be determined to understand the abstraction of groundwater by solar pumps and, if at all, it’s a boon in an era of changing climate.

To fully realise the essence of climate-smart agriculture, reducing carbon and water footprint is the need of the hour. This will make our agri-systems climate-resilient. In the Glasgow COP 26 summit, it was for the first time that a ‘water pavilion’ was organised despite this conference being in the picture for so many years now. In this dichotomy of food v/s fuel, solar can act as a remunerative crop to tackle the water crisis, which is also a climate crisis.

Need For Water Governance

SDG 6 and SDG 14 are water specific sustainable development goals (SDGs). More than a crisis of resources, it is primarily a crisis of management and governance. Water governance, particularly groundwater governance, is at the core of equitable water distribution that begins at water demand and should ideally end with recharge.

The Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal- Jal) is a World Bank approved, centrally sponsored scheme under the Ministry of Jal Shakti that focuses on decentralised water governance with an emphasis on Panchayat led groundwater management.

The key features include sustainable groundwater management with community participation, teaching behavioural change in groundwater management, demand-side management, implementation in identified water-stressed areas and convergence with ongoing central and state programmes. In addition, Atal Jal is for monitoring and implementing groundwater data, water budgeting and water security plans for sustainable groundwater management.

To realise this to full potential, concepts of ‘Water Users Associations (WUAs) or ‘Pani Panhayats’ as prevalent in some states have to be at the core of groundwater management that is the very essence of a community-led movement. The website of Atal Jal has pinned the state water portals of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya

Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh which is indicative of the fact that so much more needs to be done in the groundwater sector.

The Economic Survey of 2021-22 discusses groundwater management, and the findings indicate that states/UTs need to carefully manage groundwater (GW) resources, including recharge and stem overexploitation. The GW Resources Assessment of states/UTs is carried out jointly by state groundwater/nodal departments and the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) at periodic intervals. In addition, the Dynamic GW Resources of India is published by compiling the state/UT wise of GW resources assessed.

The survey states that the annual GW recharge has remained similar during 2004-2020. Overall, the annual GW extraction has been in the range of 58-63%. GW resource assessment unit is categorised as safe, semi-critical, critical, over-exploited and saline. The ‘semi-critical’ units have increased from 9% in 2009 to 15% in 2020; ‘critical’ units have remained 3-5% during 2004-2020.

‘Over-exploited’ units were 14-17% during 2004-2020, and approximately 1% of assessment units have been categorised as ‘saline’. On the other hand, the ‘safe’ units have declined from 73% in 2009 to 64% in 2020. Over-exploitation of GW resources, i.e., extraction exceeding the annually replenishable GW recharge, is concentrated in North-West and parts of Southern India.

To make the invisible visible, groundwater has to be focused from the lens of the ‘circular economy of water.’ Lately, ‘sponge-cities’ has become the buzzword and, for all the right reasons keeping groundwater issues in mind. The land spaces act like a sponge and absorb rainwater, facilitating GW and aquifer recharge.

Other added benefits include cleaner groundwater due to the increased volume of naturally filtered stormwater. There is also a reduction in flood risk as the city would offer more permeable spaces for the natural percolation of water.

Such interventions can give greater leeway to promoting nature-based solutions (NBS) to strengthen institutional-level governance. This can also address the problem of groundwater pollution that happens for many reasons.

The adage of ‘water is where the power is’ is prominent because the distribution of water and groundwater is deeply entrenched with power relations. So, how are water flows determined? Equitable GW resources need better laws and more significant policy intervention.