Insights from the Indo-Gangetic Basin
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Executive Summary CPWF Project Report CPWF Project Report Tackling Water & Food Crisis in South Asia: Insights from the Indo-Gangetic Basin Synthesis Report of the “Basin Focal Project for the Indo-Gangetic Basin” CPWF Project Report Project Number PN60 Bharat R Sharma; Upali A Amarasinghe, G. Ambili (Editors) International Water Management Institute Colombo, Sri Lanka for submission to the March, 2010 CPWF Project Report Acknowledgements The International Water Management Institute and the CPWF Project on “Basin Focal Project for the IndusGangetic Basin” are greatly pleased to acknowledge very active support and cooperation provided by the following institutions and individuals to make the project a great success and create the desired impact: 1. Dr. Simon Cook, Basin Focal Projects Coordinator, CIAT/ CPWF, Colombo 2. Dr. Larry Harrington, Director-Science and Dr. Ngyun Sophie Khoa, CPWF, Colombo 3. Dr. David Molden , DDG (Research), IWMI, Colombo and Dr. Madar Samad, Regional Director, IWMI, South Asia, Hyderabad, India 4. Dr. Vladimir Smakhtin, Theme Leader-I, IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka 5. Dr. Peter G McCornick, DirectorWater Policy, and Ms. Heather Hosterman, Duke University, Durham, USA 6. Dr. Alok K Sikka, Technical Expert (Watershed Development), National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), New Delhi, India 7. Dr. Devaraj de Condappa, SEI Associate, Stockholm Environment Institute, Puducherry, India 8. Dr. Alan Brooks/ Dr. William Collis/ Dr. Mohammad Giasuddin Khan/Mr.Mohammad Golam Mustafa/Ms. Susana Hervas Avila, WorldFish Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh. 9. Dr. Anil K Singh, DDG (NRM), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi, India 10. Dr. M A Khan, Director, ICARRCER, Patna, India 11. Prof. Rajendra Singh, Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India 12. Dr. Dipankar Chakraborty and Dr. Bhaskar Das, School of Environmental Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. 13. Prof. A K Gosain, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India 14. Dr. Mohammed Allauddin, University of Queensland, Australia 15. Dr. Wais Kabir, Executive Chair, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Dhaka, Bangladesh 16. Mr. Shree Krishna Adhikari, Nepal Agricultural Research Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal 17. Dr. Mushtaq Gill, exDirector General, Directorate of OnFarm Water Management, Lahore 18. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) 19. European Union ii Program Preface The Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) contributes to efforts of the international community to ensure global diversions of water to agriculture are maintained at the level of the year 2000. It is a multiinstitutional research initiative that aims to increase water productivity for agriculture—that is, to change the way water is managed and used to meet international food security and poverty eradication goals—in order to leave more water for other users and the environment. The CPWF conducts actionoriented research in nine river basins in Africa, Asia and Latin America, focusing on crop water productivity, fisheries and aquatic ecosystems, community arrangements for sharing water, integrated river basin management, and institutions and policies for successful implementation of developments in the waterfoodenvironment nexus. Project Preface CPWFIWMI “Basin Focal Project for the IndusGangetic Basin” is an initiative by the CPWF, to identify steps to be taken towards integrated management of the IGB’s water and land resources to improve productivity and ensure future sustainability of all production and ecosystems in the basin. The project was developed with the objective of conducting basin-wide analysis of the conditions, constraints and opportunities for improving agricultural water productivity and alleviating poverty through high potential interventions. This objective was accomplished through rigorous analysis and mapping of water availability and access, poverty, and productivity of water and identifying potential interventions that contribute to improved water productivity and poverty alleviation in the IndoGangetic basin. CPWF Project Report Series Each report in the CPWF Project Report series is reviewed internally by CPWF staff and researchers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically at www.waterandfood.org. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment. Before taking any action based on the information in this publication, readers are advised to seek expert professional, scientific and technical advice. Citation Sharma, Bharat R; Amarasinghe, U A; Ambili, G. (Eds.) 2010. Tackling Water and Food Crisis in South Asia: Insights from the Indo-Gangetic Basin. Synthesis Report of the Basin Focal Project for the IndoGangetic Basin, Challenge Program on Water and Food at International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka. x+120 pages CPWF Project Report Contributing Authors Chapter Title Authors No. Research Highlights/ Executive Bharat R Sharma Summary 1. Basin Focal Project for the Indo- Bharat R Sharma Gangetic Basin: An Introduction 2. The Indo-Gangetic Basin: A Regional Bharat R Sharma , G. Ambili Perspective 3. Water Availability and its Access in the Luna Bharati, Devaraj de Indo-Gangetic Basin Condappa, Bharat R Sharma 4. Water Productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Cai Xueliang, Bharat R. Basin Sharma, S Hervas, M.G. Khan, M.G. Mustafa, M. Alauddin 5. Agrarian Change and Water Institutions Tushaar Shah, Aditi Mukherji, in the Indo-Gangetic Basin Sanjiv de Silva, Dhruba Pant, R.P.S. Malik, S. Hervas, M.G. Khan 6. Interventions for Improvement of Bharat R Sharma, Asad Water Productivity in IGB region Qureshi, Dhruba Pant, G. Ambili, M. G. Mustafa, S. Hervas, M.G. Khan, M.Rahman 7. Water-Land-Poverty Nexus in the Indo- Upali A. Amarasinghe, Gangetic Basin Stefanos Xenarios, G. Ambili, R. Srinivasulu, Atul K. Singh, Dhruba Pant, Asad Qureshi, Madar Samad 8. Knowledge Management and Impact of Mir Abdul Matin, Bharat R the BFP Indo- Ganges Sharma iv Contents Topic Page RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 Chapter-I: Introduction 1. Basin Focal Project for Indo-Gangetic Basin: An Introduction 1.1. The Basin Focal Project and the IndoGangetic Basin 4 1.2. The Work Packages 4 1.3. The Scheme of Analysis 5 1.4. Structure of the Report 5 1.5. Project Partners 6 Chapter-II: Project Objectives 2. The Indo-Gangetic Basin: A Regional Perspective 2.1. The IndoGangetic Basin 7 2.2. Key Features of the Basin 8 2.3. Climate and Hydrology of IGB 9 2.4. Water Resources of the Basin 10 2.5. Water Related Hazards 12 2.6. Water Governance 12 2.7. Challenges in the Basin 13 3. Water Availability and Access in the Indo-Gangetic Basin 3.1. Introduction 15 3.2. Basin Level Water Availability and Demand 15 3.3. Water Balance Analysis at Subbasin Level 23 3.4. Threats to Future Availability of Water Resources 27 4. Water Productivity in the Indo-Gangetic Basin 4.1. Water Productivity and its Estimation at the Basin Scale 31 4.2. Water Productivity of RiceWheat Cropping System in the IndoGangetic 32 Basin 38 4.3. Annual Economic Water Productivity of RiceWheat Cropping System 40 4.4. Factors Affecting Variation in Crop Water Productivity 43 4.5. Fisheries Water Productivity in the Eastern Gangetic Basin 51 4.6. Sustainable Rural Development through Improved Water Productivity 52 4.7. Conclusion 5. Agrarian Change and Water Institutions in the Indo-Gangetic Basin 5.1. Role of Agrarian and Water Institutions in the IndoGangetic Basin 53 5.2. Is Irrigation Water Really Free in the IGB? 53 5.3. Energy-Irrigation Nexus in IGB 56 CPWF Project Report 5.4. Irrigation and Agrarian Tenancy in the IGB: A Rapid Appraisal in 45 Villages 61 across Nepal 64 5.5. Institutional Dynamics in the Pond Fishery in the Eastern IGB 65 5.6. Laws and Water Resources Governance in the IGB 6. Interventions for Improvement of Water Productivity in IGB Region 6.1. Development of Intervention Matrices and Prioritization of Cropproduction 69 Interventions 6.2. Identification of Potential Interventions using Analytical Hierarchy Process 71 6.3. Potential Interventions for Selected Crops 73 6.4. High Potential Interventions for Improving Water Productivity in IG Basin 75 6.5. Potential Interventions for Improving Fisheries Productivity in Eastern IG 79 Basin 7. Water-Land-Poverty Nexus in the Indo-Gangetic Basin 7.1. Poverty in the IndoGangetic Basin 80 7.2. Spatial and Temporal variation of Poverty 81 7.3. WaterLand-Poverty Nexus 84 7.4. WaterLand-Poverty Nexus Analysis at the Household and District level 89 7.5. WaterLand-Poverty Nexus: Lessons from Case Studies in India, Pakistan 93 and Nepal 7.6. Conclusions 96 Chapter-III: Outcomes and Impacts 8. Knowledge Management and Impact of the BFP Indo-Ganges 8.1. Introduction 97 8.2. End Users and Beneficiaries 97 8.3. Impact Pathways 97 8.4. Data Management and Database Development 103 8.5. Research Products 104 8.6. Dissemination and Impact Creation 105 8.7. Strategy for the Future 106 8.8. International Public Goods 107 8.9. Partnership Achievements 108 8.10. Recommendations 109 8.11. Publications 110 Bibliography 113 Project Participants 115 Appendix-Abstracts of some key publications 117 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Title Page No. 2.1 Socioeconomic indicators of the IndoGangetic basin countries. 8 2.2 Average annual discharge of the Indus tributaries. 10 3.1 Water demands in the Indus, down to Kotri; and Ganges basin, down to 16 Farakka. 3.2 Distribution of water demands in the Indian part of the Ganges basin, down to 17 Farakka. 3.3 Distribution of water uses in the Indus basin, down to Kotri. 17 3.4 Criteria for estimating in each subbasin the setting quality of WEAPIndus and WEAPGanges. 3.5 Simulation ability of the current WEAP-Indus and WEAPGanges. 19 3.6 WEAPsimulated average change in annual stream flow in some locations of 28 the Ganges basin when temperature increased gradually over 20 years as compared to the reference scenario (19822002). 3.7 WEAPsimulated average change in annual stream flow in some locations of 28 the Indus basin when temperature increased gradually over 20 years as compared to the reference scenario (19822002).