Water scarcity in India is changing everything, from what we eat to the way of our living. Water is the existential need of our body & society alike. Though, over the years it has also become an over-the-top abused commodity, without having received any serious attention from planning commissions, until recently.

Time and again, early societies stressed upon the importance and need for water and ably planned their lives around it. Civilizations, like Mesopotamia, Egyptian or our very own Harappan, were built or lost on account of water. Today, while we have this knowledge, as a society we fail to leverage it and value it.

Be it for industrial use, agriculture or residential purpose- water is critical. In this series on water scarcity, we will focus on various sectors and how they are being negatively impacted by this latest ‘trend’, never mind the urban evolution of our society.

Let us begin with A for Agriculture. Basis of our survival, critical for our ecosystem and the backbone of the Indian economy- agriculture is directly hit by water scarcity. Without water, farmers are at a loss of means to water their crops.

Water guzzling crops like paddy all the more suffer with farmers in latest trend seen increasingly shifting to new set of crops and cropping patterns which don’t require as much of water in comparison. This is particularly true in case of Punjab, where farmers have shifted from traditional crop of paddy to maze in order to counter the negative impacts of the lack of water. So what are these negative influences?

• Increased salinity or salt concentration in the soil
• Nutrient pollution, with traces of uranium now found in ground water, which can lead to several diseases such as cancer
• Loss of wetlands which are hotbeds for rich biodiversity (flora & fauna)
• Loss of flood plains and gradual sinking of landforms due to ground water usage
• Groundwater over-drafting (excessive usage) is leading to contracted agricultural yields

Unfortunately, agriculture not only faces water risks but also contributes to these it also contributes to the problem as a major user and polluter of water resources. Overall, agriculture plays a central role in addressing these challenges.

This is because, irrigated agriculture is globally the largest user of water. This in turn is encouraged by farmer subsidy in most countries who do not pay for the full cost of the water they use. Intensive groundwater pumping by the farmers for irrigation purposes depletes aquifers and leads to negative environmental externalities, causing significant economic impact on the agricultural sector and beyond. It remains a major source of water pollution through fertilizer run-off, usage of pesticide and livestock effluents usage all of which find their way to the waterways and groundwater.

Clearly, more work needs to be done when planning a strategy for agriculture sector of India. It will be in benefit of India to draw a ‘national agriculture map’ highlighting the types of crops grown, the methods of irrigation used, and most importantly what impact have the farmers of that particular region felt due to water scarcity. It is also beneficial here then to create higher adaptation strategies and capacities for farmers to mitigate the climate change  and water scarcity simultaneously, both of which go hand-in-hand.