"More crop per drop": Exploring India's cereal water use since 2005.
Cereals
Cool Farm Tool
Food security
India
Irrigation
Water resource management
Journal
The Science of the total environment
ISSN: 1879-1026
Titre abrégé: Sci Total Environ
Pays: Netherlands
ID NLM: 0330500
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
10 Jul 2019
10 Jul 2019
Historique:
received:
10
10
2018
revised:
26
02
2019
accepted:
20
03
2019
pubmed:
16
4
2019
medline:
18
5
2019
entrez:
16
4
2019
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
India has the highest national freshwater demand globally and 91% of India's freshwater is used in the agriculture sector. Cereals account for over 50% of the dietary water footprint in India and represent a potential opportunity for reducing water use in Indian agriculture. This study combines governmental production and irrigation statistics with crop distribution maps to examine trends in annual water use for cereal production in India between 2005 and 2014. A new online water assessment tool, Cool Farm Tool Water (CFTW), was used to calculate water use and derive seasonal state-level blue and green water footprints for rice, wheat, sorghum, millet and maize. The analysis indicates that India achieved 26.4% increased total cereal production between 2005 and 2014 without additional water or land use. Cereal water footprints have declined due to higher yields for most crops and slightly lower rates of evapotranspiration. There has also been a shift in the area under production away from the Kharif (monsoon) towards the Rabi (dry) season in which total water footprints for all cereals except rice are substantially lower (-33.4% to -45.0% compared to Kharif), but show a significantly higher dependency on ground and surface water. The value of this study is two-fold. First, it provides a full assessment of production trends for the five major cereals in India for each year from 2005 to 2014 and links it to water use. Secondly, it uses updated seasonal water footprints, which demonstrate the potential for changes in cereal production practices to contribute to improved efficiency of water use in India. Future pressures on scarce water resources may encourage transition to cereals with lower irrigation dependency, in particular maize, but also sorghum and millet. In addition, increased emphasis on improving millet and sorghum yields would be of benefit to secure cereal production and reduce its overall water footprint.
Identifiants
pubmed: 30986680
pii: S0048-9697(19)31302-6
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.304
pmc: PMC6510970
pii:
doi:
Substances chimiques
Fertilizers
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
207-217Subventions
Organisme : Wellcome Trust
Pays : United Kingdom
Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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