Rainwater Management and Indian Agriculture: A Call for a Shift in Focus from Blue to Green Water
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Rainwater Management and Indian Agriculture: A Call for a Shift in Focus from Blue to Green Water Raj Gupta1 • N. K. Tyagi2 • Inder Abrol3
Received: 15 July 2019 / Accepted: 7 February 2020 Ó NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences) 2020
Abstract Agriculture depends on irrigation water supplies provided either through rainwater management (green water) or by withdrawing water from surface or the groundwater (blue water). Summer monsoon rains are a prime water resource which contributes to both green and blue water supplies and guides the future of Indian agriculture. For improving the adaptive capacity of agriculture to climate change, soil and vegetation provide the links for inter-conversions of blue and green waters through improved carbon and gene management. It is opined that green water management so far has received less attention but hence forth be put into driving seat along with conservation agriculture to take care of uncertainties introduced by climate changes. A suite of climate smart agro-technologies, which impart resistance and resilience to farming by improving the use efficiency of green and blue waters, is suggested. For faster out-scaling of agro-technological interventions, a case for policy reforms and options available to us has been made for practicing conservation agriculture in watershed approach at appropriate scales. Keywords Soil organic carbon Agro-tcehnologies Rainwater infiltration Conservation agriculture Climate change Policy options
Introduction Agriculture contributes nearly 16% to India’s gross domestic product (GDP), holds 49% share in employment and meets the food demands of over a billion people. With advent of Green Revolution technologies in 1970s, food production in India has largely kept pace with the needs of the growing population. India has also made significant advances in enhancing the productivity of livestock and horticultural crops. Over the last few decades, the net sown & Raj Gupta [email protected] 1
CASA, National Agriculture Science Centre (NASC) Complex, New Delhi, India
2
Agricultural Scientist Recruitment Board (ASRB), New Delhi 110012, India
3
Center for Advancement of Sustainable Agriculture, NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India
area has stagnated around 140 Mha and no new large water storage structures have been constructed to increase the irrigated area in the country. Large irrigation projects successively are giving way to medium- and small-size irrigation projects, to groundwater development and now to extensive development of farm-level run-off collection ponds/tanks for drought proofing. Globally, irrigation is provided either by withdrawing water from surface or groundwater (blue water) or via rainwater management (green water). A small volume of low-quality polluted water or wastewater (grey water) is also used in agriculture. The so called blue–green water terminology was first introduced by Falkenmark and Rockstro¨m [29] and later reinterpreted for open-system framework by Weiskel et al. [102]. According
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