Irrigation

Featured Articles
December 19, 2019
Only one out of five river basins in the country resilient to climate change: Study
News this week
Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
December 18, 2019
Micro-irrigation and groundwater use
A study from Gujarat finds that micro-irrigation combined with metered power led to a reduction in uncontrolled groundwater extraction by farmers.
Micro-irrigation and its impact on groundwater (Image Source: India Water Portal)
December 13, 2019
Trading in virtual water
A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
December 11, 2019
Replacing rice will improve India’s climate resilience
A study calls for solutions that can benefit farmers and the environment and positively impact India's nutrition indicators.
Rice field in Karnataka (Image: Guldem Ustun, Flickr Commons, CC BY 2.0)
December 6, 2019
Holistic approach needed to clean the Ganga
A report by the India Rivers Forum highlights the need to focus further than the main stem of the Ganga river.
Distant snow clad mountains, the smaller hills and the Ganga river (Image: Srimoyee Banerjee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
December 4, 2019
Looking back into history to understand droughts
The 2015­-2018 drought, the longest, but less severe of droughts experienced by India raises alarm on the negative effects of future droughts on water security in the country.
India will see more droughts in the future. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Over 97 million Indians were currently being exposed to extreme floods: Report
News this week Swati Bansal posted 3 weeks 4 days ago

75 percent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events: Report
75 percent districts in India are hotspots of extreme climate events (Source: IWP Flickr photos))
Illegal sand mining led to 193 deaths in two years, says report
News this week Swati Bansal posted 1 month 2 weeks ago

Illegal sand mining operations lead to 193 deaths in two years
Sand mining on the banks of Tapti (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Data-driven ‘water and agriculture’ planning: The big picture
If data was better organized and available for download in more ‘user-friendly’ formats, its utilization would improve manifold. Amita Bhaduri posted 3 months ago

India is fortunate to have a rich tradition of public data collection and compilation.
The quality of our public data is highly variable, yet if analyses and interpretation are done keeping in mind some of the limitations, the datasets can be a precious resource at the meso and macro level. (Image: Pixabay)
Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan a low impact, high expenditure scheme: CAG
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 3 months 3 weeks ago

Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan had a low impact in making Maharashtra drought free: CAG
Deepening work in progress under the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan (Source: Ravindra Pomane)
Who is the thirstiest of them all?
A study evaluating the water use efficiency of sugarcane, curry banana and paddy among borewell irrigating farmers finds paddy to be the most inefficient and thirstiest of the three. aartikelkar posted 3 months 3 weeks ago

Agriculture uses as high as 85 percent of the available water in India of which the irrigated area accounts for nearly 48.8 percent of the 140 million hectare (mha) of agricultural land, while the remaining 51.2 percent is rainfed.
Paddy, a thirsty crop (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Farm ponds need pondering
While farm ponds have often been depicted as magic wands to deal with water scarcity, experiences in Maharashtra show otherwise. aartikelkar posted 3 months 4 weeks ago

Agriculture and inefficient water use in India
Farm ponds, often touted as magic wands to tackle water scarcity, have raised a number of concerns (Image Source: Ninad Sargar)
Banking on rainwater harvesting
National Water Mission’s campaign aims at creating rainwater harvesting structures in various parts of India. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months ago

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.
As a part of the campaign, work is being done on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures (Image: Pikist)
Green court slams centre over groundwater withdrawal in dry areas
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 5 months 3 weeks ago

NGT slams centre over groundwater extraction in dry areas
A well in Rajasthan (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Tank desiltation scheme in Maharashtra: Policy concerns and way forward
Maharashtra has been implementing the Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS) scheme since 2017. How has it fared and what needs to be done to improve it further? aartikelkar posted 6 months 1 week ago

Tank systems of India
Desiltation activities undertaken under the GDGS in Maharahstra (Image Source: NASHIKONWEB.COM)
Repurposing microirrigation to deal with water woes
Microirrigation does not often bring about a change in cropping patterns, with farmers continuing with water-intensive crops. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months 2 weeks ago

India is likely to face stark water scarcity in the coming decades as a result of excessive use, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI)’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas - a tool to visualise and assess water stress and drought and flood risk covering
Irrigation pump supplying water for drip irrigation (Image: IWMI Flickr, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0))
Subscribe to Irrigation