The role of farm subsidies in changing India's water footprint.
Journal
Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
05 Oct 2024
05 Oct 2024
Historique:
received:
16
06
2022
accepted:
20
09
2024
medline:
6
10
2024
pubmed:
6
10
2024
entrez:
5
10
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Dwindling groundwater supplies threaten food security and livelihoods. Output subsidies for farmers are a ubiquitous agricultural policy tool, yet their contribution to growing groundwater stress remains poorly quantified. We show how output subsidies guaranteeing the purchase of crops at higher than market prices may have contributed substantially to declining water tables in India. Our analysis suggests that these policies may have led to a 30% over-production of water intensive crops. In the northwestern state of Punjab, rice procurement can potentially account for at least 50% of the groundwater table decline over 34 years. In the central state of Madhya Pradesh, wheat procurement adopted in the late 2000s appears to have driven a 5.3 percentage point increase in dry wells and a consequent 3.4 percentage point increase in deep tubewells. These results suggest that well-intentioned but poorly designed subsidies can impose harmful externalities on the environment and undermine long-term sustainable development.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39368971
doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52858-6
pii: 10.1038/s41467-024-52858-6
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
8654Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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