Agriculture accounts for a whopping 89% of the water use in India, against the 69% global average. India takes 2-3 times the quantity of water compared to leading agricultural producers like Brazil, USA and China, to produce the same yield.
One of the key reasons for the inefficient usage of water in agriculture is the wear and tear on existing irrigation infrastructure, and a preference for water-guzzling crops.
This inefficiency is compounded by declining water supply owing to climate change, groundwater exploitation and salinisation. Low affordability, economic unviability, and a lack of surplus capital for farmers lead to slow adoption of micro-irrigation and precision technologies.
These challenges make it imperative to focus on optimal models of water use in agriculture. Our research highlights several replicable solutions in this space.
System of Crop Intensification | Tata Trusts, PRADAN
It involves a package of techniques like Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), and the methodology is based on four main, interacting principles:
• Establishing plants early and quickly to favour healthy and vigorous root and vegetative plant growth.
• Maintaining low plant density to allow optimal development of each plant and to minimise competition between plants for nutrients, water, and sunlight.
• Enriching soils with organic matter to improve nutrient and water holding capacity, increase microbial life in the soil, and provide a good substrate for roots to grow and develop.
• Reducing and controlling the application of water, providing only as much water as necessary for optimal plant development and to favour aerobic soil conditions.
The traditional practice of continuous flooding of the rice field produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas (GHG), specifically methane (CH4). With SRI, soil moisture is kept at an optimum level, thus reducing methane emissions from rice production.
Opting for organic fertilisers over synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, which emit the GHG nitrous oxide (N2O), also reduces the GHG contribution from rice production.
Since 2008, the Trusts have been leading the way with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) project. Targeting small and marginal farmers in select districts across multiple states, this initiative, implemented in collaboration with NGOs, has made a significant impact. By improving cropping patterns, enhancing yields, and promoting sustainable practices like reduced water and chemical inputs, the SRI project has benefited over 1,70,000 farmers in 3,500 villages across 104 districts.
Using the SRI methodology, yields are increased by 20-50% or more while reducing input requirement: seed by 90%, irrigation water by 30-50%, chemical fertiliser by 20-100%, and usually the need for pesticides.
Drip Pool Programme | C&A Foundation, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme - India
Drip irrigation delivers water directly to the root zone of plants through a network of tubes or emitters. Water drips slowly and steadily near the base of each plant, providing targeted irrigation. A pressure-compensating dripper will deliver the same amount of water to each plant regardless of changes in pressure throughout the drip irrigation system. A non-pressure compensating dripper will not compensate for the pressure change, and thus not all plants will receive the same amount of water.
Since the drip system is a costly technology. This system is mostly encouraged for non-closed growing crops. e.g., vegetables, cereals, etc. Government subsidies cover approximately half of the installation costs, with the remaining amount being the responsibility of the farmers themselves. However, small and marginal farmers, who make up nearly 80% of India’s farmers, do not have the financial resources to pay for this.
AKRSP-I, along with the C&A Foundation, has developed a community financing model to provide interest-free loans to farmers. The fund is managed by Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) with support from AKRSP-I. The organisations also simultaneously train and build the capacity of farmers to make financial decisions and attain empowerment.
An important lesson from this intervention is that if financial products are customised to small and marginal farmers in specific regions, the repayment rate of loans is 98-99%. Moreover, water-related impacts have been very positive too. Traditionally, a crop like cotton consumes 6,000-7,000 litres of water, but with drip systems, the consumption falls to 1,100-1,200 litres – an 80-90% drop. With this innovative method, participants have reported a notable 6% reduction in seed costs and an impressive 24% increase in productivity, compared to their counterparts who do not use drip irrigation.
Water-Saving or Drought-Tolerant Rice Varieties | International Rice Research Institute
The promotion of alternate seed varieties in place of conventional water-guzzling varieties of rice can have a significant impact on reducing water usage through agriculture. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has made significant strides in developing drought-tolerant and water saving rice varieties. These resilient strains, such as Sahbhagi dhan in India, Sahod ulan in the Philippines, and the Sookha dhan varieties in Nepal, are now being embraced by farmers.
Drought stands as one of the most pervasive and detrimental environmental stresses, impacting a staggering 23 million hectares of rainfed rice in this region alone. While rice cultivation traditionally aligns with the rainy season, the marked irregularity and intensity of rainfall in India frequently expose rice crops to severe moisture stress. As a result, the ability of rice crops to withstand drought becomes crucial in tropical rice-growing regions. Addressing this challenge holds immense significance for the sustainability and resilience of rice farming practices. Moreover, rice is a waterguzzling crop, and by the end of 2025, 15 million hectares of irrigated rice is estimated to suffer from ‘physical water scarcity’ in South and Southeast Asia (NRRI Technology Bulletin 2016).
IRRI projects prioritise supporting rice farmers in adapting to the impacts of climate change. Drawing on the vast genetic diversity of the Rice Genebank – the repository of their researched rice varieties – they breed resilient rice strains capable of withstanding unforeseen climate shocks and thriving in marginal environments. Moreover, extensive areas of land in Asia and Africa are currently unproductive for rice farming due to their high salt content. IRRI has also worked on the integration of the Saltol gene into popular rice varieties across Asian countries, which has proven successful. There are other varieties that are resilient to heat, cold and submergence. IRRI has successfully developed and released 17 high-yielding drought-tolerant rice varieties, which include Sahod Ulan and Katihan (Philippines), Hardinath and Sookha Dhan (Nepal), Sahbhagi Dhan (India), BRRI Dhan (Bangladesh), Inpago LIPI Go 1/2 (Indonesia), M’ZIVA (Mozambique), and UPIA3 (Nigeria) (Singh et al. 2021). Also, upland and aerobic rice varieties like the IR64 have well-known characteristics, can grow in nonflooded conditions and have shown good yield potential with reduced water usage.
Field trials have shown that these drought-tolerant varieties consistently outperform their susceptible counterparts, providing an average yield advantage of 0.8-1.2 tonnes per hectare under drought conditions. Recent research has also shown that traditional flooded rice cultivation underpinned by paddy or lowland rice requires approximately 5,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of rice. In contrast, by transitioning to aerobic rice cultivation, which is a water-saving rice variety that involves growing rice in non-flooded conditions, water usage can be significantly reduced to approximately 3,000-3,500 litres per kilogram of rice.
Water productivity (defined as grams of grains produced per kg of water input) was reported to be approximately 60-70% higher as compared to traditional rice varieties. Moreover, in terms of other positive impact parameters, IRRI has developed and released several drought-tolerant rice varieties like Sahbhagi dhan and DRR dhan 42, 43 and 44 in India, field trials for which suggest that their average yield advantage over drought-susceptible ones is 1.0-1.5 tonnes per hectare under drought conditions. Moreover, due to its early maturity (105 days) and low irrigation requirements, farmers can save up to $60 per crop.
Vayalagam Tankfed Agriculture Development Programme | DHAN Vayalagam Foundation
The rehabilitation and modernisation of tank irrigation refers to the process of restoring and upgrading existing tank-based irrigation systems to improve their functionality, efficiency, and sustainability. This involves repairing, renovating, and refurbishing the infrastructure of the tanks, including channels, gates, outlets, and other components. Additionally, modernisation entails integrating advanced technologies and management practices to enhance water storage, distribution, and usage. The aim is to optimise the performance of the irrigation systems, ensure effective water management, and maximise agricultural productivity in the respective areas. Because tanks are distributed across the landscape, they provide an avenue to capture more water.
With approximately 0.25 million tanks scattered throughout the country, their irrigated area was 1.67 million hectares in 2018, a decline from 3.3 million hectares in 1953. The southern states contribute nearly 60% of the total tank-irrigated area in the country. However, over the years the utility of tanks has been significantly impacted due to lowering productivity and efficiency. Challenges such as encroachment, improper land use in the upstream areas, and siltation have led to a substantial 30% reduction in tank storage capacity across most regions, resulting in poor tank irrigation performance. In light of limitations in expanding canal irrigation and groundwater development, irrigation tanks have now resurfaced as a prime example of providing extensive protective irrigation in the semi-arid tropics.
By providing access to water, crop production technology, and institutional governance, the main goal of maintaining tank-fed agriculture was to support tiny, marginal, and poor agricultural communities. The initiative, which started in the late 1990s and continued until 2021, merged microfinance, insurance, extension (via Plant Clinics), and tank-based watersheds. The main organisation, the Vayalagam (tank association), is promoted in small communities and around fresh water sources like tanks, village ponds, community wells, and similar sources. These Vayalagams are integrated at the level of the cascade or watershed, followed by the level of the block as Federations, in order to provide better water sharing on a hydrologic basis.
By the end of March 2021, 3,511 Vayalagams and 36 federations, spread throughout more than 17 river basins, had been promoted. It has touched over 2,550 villages in six states and even led to the creation of 3 million cubic metres of additional water storage through INR 175.33 million worth of renovation works. Moreover, this technique has been reported to have rehabilitated more than 450 water bodies, accounting for INR 35 crores. Rehabilitating irrigation tanks to their original storage capacity significantly increases water availability for cropping. Moreover, in other tank rehabilitation-related projects, interventions by DHAN have been able to double the crop production while growing paddy as the first and second crop in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu.
How can India be propelled towards a water-resilient future?
Explore our Perspective on Water Use Efficiency in India to learn more.
To ensure the effectiveness of the solutions, the interventions would need to be designed and implemented in an integrated manner with enablers aimed at promoting awareness, research, market support, capacity building, financing, deployment, and policy.
This is where funders working at the nexus of water and agriculture can play a pivotal role in driving Indian agriculture towards a water- efficient future. They can accelerate water-efficient techniques in Indian agriculture by investing in research, offering incentives, supporting awareness programmes, and collaborating with NGOs.
