Abstract
This paper finds that many rainfed districts in India, defined as those with low access to irrigation, have the potential to harvest water and improve water productivity, where supplementary irrigation in critical periods of crop growth would increase yield and physical water productivity (PWP). There is potential for irrigated areas to increase PWP, too; the excess surface runoff under normal to moderate drought conditions, harvested in ponds and tanks, could reduce water stress in critical periods of crop growth. Rainfed and irrigated areas with water stress should consider diversifying to high-value drought-tolerant crops to increase the economic water productivity, income under normal climatic conditions, and resilience under drought conditions.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge funding from CGIAR research initiatives: Nexus Gains (Realizing multiple benefits across water energy food forest biodiversity systems), and ClimBeR (Building Systemic Resilience Against Climate Variability and Extremes). We also acknowledge the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for their support.
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© 2023 National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Sikka, A.K., Amarsinghe, U.A., Perera, M. (2023). Improving Water Productivity for Transforming Agri-food Systems. In: Bansal, K.C., Lakra, W.S., Pathak, H. (eds) Transformation of Agri-Food Systems . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8014-7_3
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