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Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India: Series 4 Water Productivity Improvements in Indian Agriculture: Potentials, Constraints and Prospects M. Dinesh Kumar and Upali A. Amarasinghe, editors Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India: Series 4 Water Productivity Improvements in Indian Agriculture: Potentials, Constraints and Prospects M. Dinesh Kumar and Upali A. Amarasinghe, editors INTERNATIONAL WATER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE IWMI receives its principal funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Support is also given by the Governments of Ghana, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The editors: M. Dinesh Kumar, formerly Director IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program, presently Executive Director, Institute for Resource Analyses and Policy (IRAP), Hyderabad; Upali A. Amarasinghe, Senior Researcher, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), New Delhi Office. Kumar, M.D.; Amarasinghe, U.A. eds. 2009. Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India: Series 4. Water Productivity Improvements in Indian Agriculture: Potentials, Constraints and Prospects. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute. 159p. water productivity / cereals / irrigation water / water quality / water use / multiple use / water demand / agricultural production / crop yield / electricity supplies / food production / crop production / rain-fed farming / irrigated farming / irrigation systems / cropping systems / farming systems / case studies / tube well irrigation / dairy production / milk production / economic aspects / supplemental irrigation / water deficit / water allocation / constrains / food security / policy / india ISBN: 978-92-9090-712-1 Copyright © 2009, by IWMI. All rights reserved. Cover photo by Dr. Alok Sikka (National Rain-fed Authority, NASC Complex, New Delhi, India) shows furrow-irrigated raised-bed-planted wheat. Please direct inquires and comments to: [email protected] ii Contents Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................... v Preface ............................................................................................................................................ vii Paper 1. Water Productivity Improvements in Indian Agriculture: Potentials, Constraints and Prospects M. Dinesh Kumar and Upali A. Amarasinghe ......................................................... 1 Paper 2. Water Productivity of Foodgrains in India: Exploring Potential Improvements .................. 13 Upali A. Amarasinghe and Bharat R. Sharma Paper 3. Analyzing the Impact of Quality and Reliability of Irrigation Water on Crop Water Productivity Using an Irrigation Quality Index ........................................................................ 55 M. Dinesh Kumar, Kairav Trivedi and O. P. Singh Paper 4. Water Productivity of Different Agricultural Systems .......................................................... 73 Alok K. Sikka Paper 5. Impact of Dairy Farming on Agricultural Water Productivity and Irrigation Water Use .... 85 O. P. Singh and M. Dinesh Kumar Paper 6. Improving Water Productivity in Agriculture in India: Beyond ‘More Crop per Drop’ .... 99 M. Dinesh Kumar and Jos C. van Dam Paper 7. Opportunities and Constraints to Improving Water Productivity in India ......................... 121 M. Dinesh Kumar iii iv Acknowledgement The project team would greatly appreciate Dr. Dinesh Kumar, formerly the Director IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program, and presently the Executive Director, Institute for Resource Analyses and Policy (IRAP), Hyderabad, for leading the research and synthesis for this volume. The project team, along with Dr. Kumar, would also like to thank the authors of different chapters/ papers for their timely and thoughtful contributions to the research on water productivity improvements reported in this volume and published in other volumes. The project team also appreciate the guidance of the project advisory committee- the chairman Prof. M.S. Swaminathan and others including Prof. Yoginder K Alagh, Prof. Vijay S. Vyas, Prof. Kanchan Chopra, Prof. Vandana Shiva, Prof. Frank R. Rijsberman, Mr. Anil D. Mohile, Mr. S. Gopalakrsinan, Mr. Deep Joshi, Dr. Peter McCornick and Dr. Tushaar Shah. The authors would also like to thank Drs. Hugh Turral, David J. Molden, Charlotte De Fraiture, Mark Geordano and Mobin-ud-din Ahmad of International Water Management Institute; Dr. Petra Hellegers, Associate Professor of Economics at Wageningen University and Research Centre; team of scientists including Drs. A. Haris, A. Upadhyaya, P.R. Bhatnagar, A. Dey, A.R. Reddy and A.K. Singh at the ICAR-Patna complex. Their assistance or comments on various stages of research and preparation of different manuscripts were immensely helpful. The draft synthesis of the chapters/papers was presented at the National Workshop on ‘Strategic Issues of Indian Irrigation’ held on April 7-8, 2009 in New Delhi. Authors would like to thank Dr. A. Narayanamoorthy, Professor and Head, Centre for Rural Development, Alagappa University, Tamil Nadu, for his detailed comments on the book chapters/papers, and the participants of the workshop for their comments on the synthesis. Finally, we express our thanks to Ms. Mala Ranawake for general coordination and logistical support; Mr. Joseph Perera, Ms. Pavitra Amunugama and Mr. Nimal Attanayake for managing the editorial and production process of this volume. Upali A. Amarasinghe, Senior Researcher and Project Leader, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), New Delhi Office. v vi Preface In 2005, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) started a three-year research study on ‘Strategic Analysis of India’s River Linking Project’. The primary focus of the IWMI-CPWF project is to provide the public and the policy planners with a balanced analysis of the social benefits and costs of the National River Linking Project (NRLP). The project consists of research in three phases. Phase I analyzed India’s water future scenarios to 2025/2050 and related issues. Phase II, analyses how effective a response NRLP is, for meeting India’s water future and its social costs and benefits. Phase III contributes to an alternative water sector perspective plan for India as a fallback strategy to NRLP. This volume, the fourth in a series of publications, presents findings of research in Phase III. It assesses the potential contribution, constraints and prospects of contributions from water productivity improvements in the irrigation sector to an alternative water sector perspective plan for India. vii iv Water Productivity Improvements in Indian Agriculture: Potentials, Constraints and Prospects M. Dinesh Kumar1 and Upali A. Amarasinghe2 1 International Water Management Institute, India Project Office, VV Nagar, India 2 International Water Management Institute, New Delhi, India Introduction India is still an agrarian country, although the structure of the economy is gradually changing. Industrialization and urbanization setoff in the 1990s resulted in a greater contribution from the manufacturing and service sectors to the national economic output. Today, the agriculture sector contributes to only 17% of the gross domestic product (GDP), yet nearly 70 % of the country’s population live in rural areas and a major part of this depends on agriculture-related economic activities for their livelihoods. Projections show that it would take another five decades before the population starts stabilizing (Visaria and Visaria 1997). Hence, sustaining agriculture production, particularly the production of food grains in tune with population growth and changing consumption patterns, is an important task. This task is not only essential for feeding the growing population for a large country like India, but also important for supporting livelihoods and reducing the poverty of India’s large rural population1 (Chaturvedi 2000). Moreover, water demand in nonagricultural sectors, including that for the environment is increasing and many regions in the country are facing severe water stress (Amarasinghe et al. 2005, 2008). Thus, efforts to manage water efficiently in the agriculture sector and produce more crop and value per drop are gaining momentum now more than ever before. Agriculture continues to account for a major share of the water demand in India (Amarasinghe et al. 2008). South-west monsoon provides a major part of India’s annual rainfall, and the quantum varies widely across space (GOI 1999). In most places, growing crops require an artificial provision of water during non-monsoon season and in some places even during the monsoon. In fact, only one-third of the agricultural production in the country comes from rain-fed areas, which account for two-thirds of the crop lands. As per official projections, a major share of the future growth in India’s agriculture production would have to come from 1 Several studies in the past have indicated that agricultural growth, especially growth in food grain production positively impacted on reducing rural poverty (Hazzle and Haggblade 1991; Rao 1994; Ghosh 1996; Desai and Namboodri 1998). Rural poverty has correlated with relative food prices, which is affected by fluctuations in food supply (Ravallion 1998;