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WATER PRODUCTIVITY IN

AGRICULTURE

Dr.M.D.Reddy
Dr M D Reddy
Head
Water Technology
gy Centre,,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030.

Key note paper in "Proceedings 2nd International Conference on Hydrology and 1


watershed" 6th December, 2006 Held at JNTU, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Introduction
z Productivity, in general terms, is a ratio
between a unit of output and a unit of input
z Water productivity broadly denotes the
outputs
p (goods and services)) derived from a
(g
unit volume of water

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z According to Molden (1997), water
productivity is the physical mass of production
or the
h economici value
l off production
d i measuredd
against gross inflows, net inflows, depleted
water,
t process depleted
d l t d water
t or available
il bl
water

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Multiple uses of water at basin
level
z Crop production
z Livestock production
p
z Tree production
z Fisheries production
z Ecosystem services
z Domestic,
i industrial,
i d i l power generation
i
z Tourism and recreational

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The growing scarcity and rising
value of water in a basin

z Induce farmers to seek ways to increase


water productivity
d i i andd economici efficiency
ffi i
z Recycling or reuse of water
z Managing surface and ground water for
conjunctive use

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ISSUES

Water scarcity exists when the demand for water


exceeds the supply
Classified as:
( ) Physical
(a) y water scarcity
y
(b) Economic water scarcity
((c)) Managerial water scarcity
(d) Institutional water scarcity
(e) Political water scarcity
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z Molden et al. (2003) estimated that by 2020
approximately 75% of the world’s population
will live in areas experiencing physical or
economic water scarcity

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Two approaches for Increasing
Productivity in Agriculture

z Increasing technical efficiency through more


efficient utilization of production inputs

z Increasing allocate efficiency by producing


outputs with the highest returns

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Water productivity and efficiency

Water
W t productivity
d ti it (WP),
(WP) like
lik land
l d productivity,
d ti it is i a
partial-factor productivity that measures how systems
convert water into g
goods and services

z Performance of irrigation systems- classic irrigation and


effective
ff ti efficiency
ffi i
z Classic irrigation efficiency focuses on establishing the
nature and extent of water losses and included storage g
efficiency, conveyance efficiency, distribution efficiency
and application efficiency

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z Classic irrigation efficiency measures are useful for
managers of water system to
(a) Assess how much water they were losing in the storage,
conveyance, distribution, and application sub-systems
(b) Identify
d if interventions
i i to improve
i performance
f

z Classic
Cl i efficiency
ffi i f il to capture the
fails h water re-use
aspect

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W t productivity
Water d ti it and
d water
t saving
i

z Real water saving by reducing non-beneficial depletion can be


accomplished through: Reducing flows to sinks and reducing
non-beneficial evaporation

z Increasing water productivity requires greater use of


• labor
• Capital
• Management
z Important following key questions are
• What happens to the water that is lost through runoff and deep percolation?
• Wh effect
What ff d
does reducing
d i non-beneficial
b fi i l use have
h on systems that
h were
dependent on the water that it provided?
• What happens to the water that is saved through reduced runoff and deep
percolation losses?

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The rationale for increasing water
productivity

• Global imperatives
• Basin Level
• System Level
• Farm Level

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Global Imperatives
z “Blue Revolution
“Bl R l ti in
i agriculture
i lt th t focuses
that f on increasing
i i
productivity per unit of water – ‘more crop per drop”
(Annan, 2000).

z “Maintaining the level of global diversions of water to


agriculture at the level of the year 2000, while increasing
food p production,, to achieve internationally-adopted
y p
targets for decreasing malnourishment and rural poverty
by the year 2015, particularly in rural and peri-urban
areas in river basins with low average incomes and high
physical economic or environmental water scarcity or
physical,
water stress, with a specific focus on low-income groups
within these areas” (CPWF, 2002).

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Basin-level
z Increase water availability to users and uses that are
disadvantaged
z Reduce overall water demand and develop additional
water resources
• Dam development
• Groundwater exploitation
• Water transfers from regions with excess water to regions that
experience water scarcity
z Increase total basin level water benefits through more
productive use of the available water resources
p

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System level

z Secure water for downstream farmers who


experience water shortages

z Reduce operation and maintenance costs


a) Associated with desilting
b)) water outtake includingg the costs of ppumping
p g

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System level

z Make water available for expansion of the


irrigated area
z Comply with water permit and pollution
regulations
g to ensure adequate
q pprovision of
safe water for non-agricultural users

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Farm level
z Reduce water costs (costs of pumping, delivering
water or water fees)
z Reduce loss of land productivity associated with
• Soil erosion
• Water logging
• Salinization
z Expand irrigated areas with the same amount of
irrigation water available
z I
Increase agricultural
i lt l output,
t t food
f d security
it andd
profitability

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

At system level
• Agronomic practices
• Choice of salt tolerant crops varieties
• Deficit irrigation
• Efficient management of Rain water

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

At Plant level
• Varietal improvement
p through
g pplant breedingg
and molecular biology
• The development
p of short-season varieties,,
reducing the growing time from 5 months to
3.5 – 4 months, has also been a major source
of water savings

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

Farm level
• Adoption of yield-increasing and water-saving
technologies
h l i
• Farmers water management under water scarcity-
warabandi, crops and cropping systems
• Improved agronomic practices, introduction of salt
tolerant crop varieties and saline water aquaculture
• Water saving irrigation (WSI) practice
• To produce “more rice with less water”

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity
Basin level
z Response to water scarcity and sustainability
a) As the competition for water increases and river
basins become closed for all or part of the year,
WP and economic efficiency (EE) are typically
increased by shifting to higher-valued crops

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Options
p for Improving
p g Water
Productivity
Policies and Institutions
z Publicly managed, irrigation systems are being poorly
managed and that policy and institutional reforms
z Improved management of canal irrigation systems require

1
1. Reforms in pricing and charging users for water or water
services
2. Greater participation in the O&M of systems by local user
groups
3. Establishment of water rights

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

Policies and Institutions


z Water pricing policy
Water-pricing
z Participatory irrigation management (PIM) and
irrigation management transfer (IMT)

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

z Conjunctive use
a) Talend problems
b) Over exploitation
c) Salinity could be greatly reduced with improved
conjunctive
j i management off surface-water
f and
d
groundwater resources

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity
Remote sensing and GIS
z Development of a precision agriculture technology that relates spatio-
temporal changes in soil salinity and other edaphic properties to crop yield

z Development of site-specific reclamation guidelines to optimize crop yields


and minimize environmental impacts

z Development of salinity management tools to evaluate the sustainability of


drainage water reuse on irrigated soils

z Development
D l off improved
i d RS technology
h l f rapid
for id measurement off salinity,
li i
water content, and soil properties important for the management of salt-
affected soil

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z Development of irrigation systems which can vary
water application across the field according to the
water demands of the crop

z The development
p of more water efficient cropp
varieties

z Development of instruments which can rapidly


determine plant water and nutrient requirements

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity

Aquaculture
z Brackish water aquaculture ( saline ground
water)
z Rice-fish
Rice fish farming

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Inland fisheries

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Options for Improving Water
Productivity
Forestry and Agro forestry

Trees on farms have the potential for improving


productivity in two ways
z Increase the amount of water that is used on farm
as tree or crop transpiration
z Trees can also increase the productivity of the
water that is used by increasing biomass of trees
or crops produced per unit of water used

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Options
p for Improving
p g Water
Productivity
Waste water use

z Important in the peri-urban agriculture and provides


li lih d to
livelihood t large
l sections
ti off the
th society
i t

z Unscientific use and management of these resources can


l d to severall health
lead h l h andd sanitation
i i hazards
h d

z Offer an assured source of water supply


pp y to otherwise water
stressed urban hinterlands for cultivation of vegetables and
forage crops

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Thank you
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