Water management & Indian agriculture

World Water Day today

Hemchandra Saikia

(The writer can be reached at saikia.hemchandra@rediffmail.com)

Since 1993 onward the World Water Day is celebrated every year on March 22 across the world. This is really an essential and appreciable step initiated by the United Nations for the greater interest of human civilization and its sustainable development. In fact, the very idea to celebrate World Water Day was first formally proposed by United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro,1992 in their Agenda 21 and accordingly the United Nations General Assembly in December 1992 adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 and declared 22nd March of each year as the "World Day for Water". This was first observed in 1993 as an International event with a theme "Water, Sustainable development, Sustainability". This year's theme for World Water Day is - Valuing Water. Thus it can be interpreted as the true value of water is much more than its price and it must be valued appropriately for different uses and for different users and due emphasis and actions should be implemented regarding the right and economic use of water in every activities without compromising the quality of water so that efficiency of per drop of water used stands optimum.

Why do we need sustainable water management approach?

We know that water is essential for life, without water we can't survive. All plants and animals need water to survive. If there was no water there would be no life on earth. There was a time when people across various parts of the world consider water a free good. But with the passage of time and due to increase of population pressure, civilization, industrialization, urbanization, improving living standards, changing consumption patterns, and expansion of irrigated agriculture and development in numerous fields of economy, now this one time free good water becomes scarcity for many sections of our people. As a result now we mankind are confronting with a great problem of Global Water Crisis and going to be a great challenge to mankind for its sustenance, for its all sort of sustainability in every sphere of human life where parameter like quality of water, quantity of water and its economic and efficient and sustainable use and management etc are very crucial to have a desirable world with sustainable development.

According to United Nations the problem of water towards mankind and development is such that one in every three people has to live without safe or quality drinking water and thus hampering potential development of human resources and its exploitation in developmental fields. Again UN also reports that by 2050, up to 5.7 billion people could be living in areas where water is scarce for at least one month a year and by 2040, global water demand is expected to increase by more than 50%. Not only this, the existing climate changes occurring across different parts of the world also is pushing the problem of water to a new dimensional aspect of challenge. It is reported that the climate-resilient water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 3,60,000 infants every year. Again, the World Economic Forum, 23rd March 2017 revealed that two-thirds of the global population (4 billion people) lives under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year.

So far as agriculture is concerned, FAO also opines water as a critical input for agricultural production having pivotal role in food security and reveals that irrigated agriculture represents 20 per cent of the total cultivated land and contributes 40 per cent of the total food produced worldwide. Irrigated agriculture is, on an average, at least twice as productive per unit of land as rain-fed agriculture, thereby allowing for more production intensification and crop diversification.

So far as Indian agriculture is concerned, country has 18% of world population and 4% of world's fresh water and out of this 4% of world fresh water, 80% is used in agriculture and that too with a very uneconomic, injudicious and inefficient manner of utilization and becomes as one of the important reason of rising water demand and water crisis although vast of country's cultivated land is under rain-fed condition. On the other hand, we need development in all sectors in general and due agricultural development in particular and for this to happen India's demand for fresh water will increase manifold in coming decades in order to have self-sufficient and optimum development in agricultural production and food security, requiring expansion of irrigated area to a great extent. But in doing so a country cannot allow the very injudicious use of irrigation water in agriculture because this will result many ill impact like loss of soil fertility, degradation of soil of various types.

At the same time we cannot be a scapegoat due to insufficient use of irrigation water in agriculture for the greater interest of food security, sustainable environment and sustainable development in right time and place. Because wasteful and excessive use of water results in lower yields in agriculture and adverse environmental effects such as soil salinity and water logging.

So far as sustainable agriculture is concerned with optimum economic and production efficiency, the quality and quantity of irrigation water or artificial water is very much crucial in order to attain and maintain optimum efficiency in agriculture. Because use of poor quality of irrigation water either in excess or insufficient amount may result degradation of soil leading to loss of soil fertility resulting much decrease in production efficiency in agriculture. Again insufficient use of irrigation water may also results poor productivity in agriculture accentuating the problem of food insecurity. Moreover, scientific and economic use of irrigation water in right time and place with strict adherence to its quality parameter are very essential to enhance the input use efficiency in agriculture which ultimately help in attainment of optimum economic and production efficiency in quality agricultural production and this will ultimately pave the way for enhancing income and profit of our esteemed farming community in particular and economy general. In this regard due emphasis should be given in the right development and use of suitable and efficient method of irrigation technologies, popularization and sensitization of people about these irrigation technologies, stopping unnecessary waste of water, rain water harvesting and its popularization, using quality water in right time and place, making irrigation technologies easily affordable, accessible, economic and profitable. And in agriculture water must be used and managed in such a way that it does not result any sort of soil degradation and at the same time there must be true guarantee using irrigation water in all the critical stages of crop growth in adequate amount with minimum or no loss of excess water. Because optimum and efficient use of irrigation water is always associated with increasing desirable crop growth resulting enhanced crop production on a very sustainable basis provided water is used and maintained on a very sustainable basis.

So, maximizing or optimizing the per drop of quality water use in agriculture is one of the most important interventions considered by our expert team under the leadership of Prime Minister of India Norendra Modiji for doubling income of our farmers by 2022. This implies that all should understand the value of water used in different fields or activities for the greater interest of tackling the great and increasing problem of global water crisis and also to maintain our desirable level of food security and sustainable development of mankind. In this process we human being must be determined to stop unnecessary loss of water at any cost in every sphere of our life and simultaneously there must be effective assurance in the quality use of water with optimum input use efficiency in every field of economic activities, including agriculture and allied fields. So if we all understand the very causes of water crisis and value of using water in different activities and starts acting effectively, then it is sure that we can able to find a desirable solution against the great problem of global water crisis. Here comes the very need of strong and effective collective community participation on a continuous basis and this is not an impossible task rather a practically possible task. Because where there is will there is way.