Groundwater Depletion impact on Cropping Intensity – UPSC GS3

India is the world’s largest consumer of groundwater.

India is also the second-largest producer of wheat in the world with over 30 million hectares in the country dedicated to producing this crop.

With severe groundwater depletion, the cropping intensity or the amount of land planted in winter may decrease by up to 20% by 2025.

13% of the villages in which farmers plant a winter crop are located in critically water-depleted regions.

These villages may lose 68% of their cropped area in the future if access to all groundwater irrigation is lost. The losses will largely occur in northwest and central India.

The Green Revolution enabled the cropping of water-intensive crops like rice in water deficit regions such as Haryana and Punjab.

Increased demand for water for domestic, industrial, and agricultural needs together with limited surface water led to the over-exploitation of groundwater resources.

Frequent pumping of water from the ground without waiting for its replenishment leads to quick depletion.

Subsidies on electricity and high Minimum Support Price(MSP) for water intensive crops.

Inadequate regulation of groundwater laws encourages the exhaustion of groundwater resources without any penalty.

Post-harvest burning of crops, deforestation, unscientific methods of agriculture, chemical effluents from industries. It also led to pollution of groundwater making it unusable.

There are enough groundwater resources with higher monsoon rainfall in eastern Indian states like Bihar.

But due to lack of enough irrigation infrastructure, farmers are not able to make use of natural resources there.

Hence, we need better policies in eastern India to expand irrigation and thus increase agriculture productivity. This will also release some pressure from north western Indian states.