Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture: The Water Management Challenge

1
Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture The
Water Management Challenge

• M. Dinesh Kumar
• International Water Management Institute
• VV Nagar
• Email d.kumar_at_cgiar.org

2
Water, Irrigation and Poverty
Irrigation contributed to TFP growth, which
contributed to growth in crop output _at_ 1.1 -1.3
per annum

• Agriculture made significant contribution to
  economic growth. Its value increased 3.2 times in
  real terms in 50 years
• Irrigation largest absorber of rural labour
  force growth in grain production negatively
  impacts rural poverty
• Stagnation in net cropped area and area under
  food grains
• Irrigation key to sustaining agriculture growth,
  and ensuring food security at the national,
  regional and domestic level
• Indias diversion of water for irrigation is
  largest in the world569 m3/capita 0.74 m/GIA

Yield increase through irrigation contributed
more to growth in grain production than growth
in Cropped area
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Water and Food Security Indias Paradox

• Large chunk of agricultural growth came from
  northern region lowest from eastern region
• Cultivation lowest in Bihar irrigation is one of
  the lowest
• Socioeconomic deprivation and low level of farm
  surpluses hinder private irrigation investments
• In Gujarat, large scale private investment in
  well irrigation led to groundwater
  over-exploitation

TFP growth 1.4 per annum against 1.14 national
and 0.75 for eastern region
Per Capita Cultivated area is 0.091 ha in Bihar
against 0.31 ha in Punjab irrigated area 0.043
ha against 0.31 ha in Punjab
Poor agricultural growth, low NSDP Growth and
high unemployment cause food security in Bihar
Orissa
Groundwater depletion, vulnerability to drought,
land degradation causing crop losses and food
insecurity problems
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Water Scarcity Impact on Food Security

• Low water productivity in irrigation
• Growing water scarcity
• Aggregate level gap between demand supplies of
  water (26 M ha m in 2025)
• Greater negative impact on irrigation water
  availability
• Greater degree of relative water scarcity
• Increasing preference for non-food cash crops

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Resource Degradation Impact on Food Security

• Groundwater depletion
• Significant reductions in irrigated areas in hard
  rock areas monopolized markets
• Irrigated farming becoming economically unviable
• Rich farmers continue farming due to heavy
  electricity subsidy
• Irrigated farming with purchased water becoming
  unviable and loss making

A significant portion of supplies in future would
come from severe depletion
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Resource degradation impact on food security

• Land degradation
• Excessive irrigation leading to leaching of
  minerals in soils
• Groundwater irrigated areas subject to increased
  soil salinity
• Irrigation fertilizer requirement increase
  decline in water and fertilizer productivity
• Greater threat in future due to increasing land
  use intensity
• Poor will be worst affected

Fatigue of Green Revolution Contribution of TFP
growth to crop output growth declined from 1.4
per annum in 67/77 to 1.05 in 77/87
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Changing the Trajectory of Irrigation Development

• Northeast east have abundant groundwater at low
  depths
• Underutilized due to poor economic conditions
  infrastructure, and high rates of literacy
• Low cost water abstraction devices would enable
  millions of poor to invest in irrigation
• This could absorb the surplus labour force
  Orissa, Bihar, Assam eastern UP

In Orissa, gross economic gain by shifting from
rain fed farming to treadle pump irrigation is
Rs.11000/annum
Adopters gain more returns than those who hire
diesel pumps
Adopters grow different vegetables for
self-consumption as well as sale enjoy greater
food nutritional security
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Producing more crop per drop
Water-Energy Nexus In deep alluvial areas, only
power supply limits farmers ability to irrigate

• When physical and economic scarcity of water
  grows, productivity needs to be enhanced
• Conventional efficient irrigation devices have
  serious bias
• Favour the rich and large holders
• Need pressurizing devices need extra energy to
  run
• Little economic incentives to use
• Affordable irrigation devices least energy
  intensive are needed

Low cost, non-pressurized system would mainly
benefit water buyers and those having poor source
Non-pressurized devices are best suited to hard
rock areas, with poor Well yields would pick up
in peninsular
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Natural Resource Management Technologies
Land degradation can put limits on Water
productivity enhancements through technologies

• Managing irrigation needs managing land
  productivity.
• Organic manure, mulching and vermiculture can
  improve land productivity and cut down water req.
  of crops
• Small marginal farmers face constraints in
  managing biomass
• Extra biomass to be generated without exogenous
  water

Organic manure can held regain soil structure
and texture and improve nutrients, moisture
retention capacity
Biotic pressure on land is high for small
holders as cattle-holding is disproportionately
high
Semi-arid arid areas face high inter-annual
variability in rainfall tree planting on-farm
moisture conservation are important
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Institutional Changes for changing trajectory of
water use and productivity in agriculture
Great mismatches in demand-supply situation
regulations to manipulate supplies and manage
demand will not succeed

• When water is scarce with conflicts, allocation
  becomes inevitable.
• Markets powerful instrument for water allocation
  in Indian context
• Trading of water in an institutional vacuum leads
  to inequity
• Tradable water use rights are needed for
  groundwater water from public systems
• When allocated rights become tradable, selling
  price of water would represent opportunity cost
  of using

Prices will work in two ways shift to
alternative uses of higher economic return than
the price of water. Or
Continue existing practices with higher
efficiency or resort to selling
Studies in Mehsana shows under fixed volumetric
allocation, farmers grow crops and use water in
ways that give very high productivity
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Encouraging Efficient Use

• Pricing of irrigation water
• Compelling reasons for subsidies in farm sector
• Policy failure in pricing owing to inappropriate
  pricing structure
• Returns are more elastic to reliability of
  irrigation than its cost
• Pricing based on water requirement to begin with

t
Irrigation subsidy is 5400 crore in India
Indias food security policy, restriction on
inter-state grain trade
Due to very low water rates, and zero marginal
costs, farmers go for water intensive crops
In S C Gujarat, sugarcane paddy take 4614
MCM out of 6177 MCM (75) of water
Tube well irrigators in canal command get higher
returns mode of pricing quality of irrigation
water delivery are important
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Encouraging Efficient Use

• Electricity prices
• Flat rate system inefficient, inequitable
  (IRMA/UNICEF 2001)
• Regulations on power supply negatively impacts
  poor through monopoly markets (Kumar Rao 2003)
• Returns from farming more elastic to control over
  irrigation than cost (Kumar and Singh 2001)
• Good quality power supply with unit pricing can
  encourage efficient use and productivity
  enhancement

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Conclusions

• Managing irrigation for poverty reduction is no
  more linked to the issue of WRD in most
  instances.
• It is more about allocating the available water
  among all the potential users equitably and
  encouraging greater efficiency and productivity
  in its use.
• Low cost WRD and use technologies would play an
  important role in enabling poor people to access
  water and use it productively.
• Policies and institutions are need to encourage
  NRM practices for improving land management, and
  promoting economically efficient uses