Invisible water, visible impact: groundwater use and Indian agriculture under climate change

Zaveri, Esha; Grogan, Danielle S.; Fisher-Vanden, Karen; Frolking, Steve; Lammers, Richard B.; Wrenn, Douglas H.; Prusevich, Alexander; Nicholas, Robert E.

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084005

Title: Invisible water, visible impact: groundwater use and Indian agriculture under climate change

Journal Article · Wed Aug 03 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Environmental Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084005· OSTI ID:1436294

Zaveri, Esha ^[1]; Grogan, Danielle S. ^[2]; Fisher-Vanden, Karen ^[1]; Frolking, Steve ^[2]; Lammers, Richard B. ^[2]; Wrenn, Douglas H. ^[1]; Prusevich, Alexander ^[2]; Nicholas, Robert E. ^[3]

Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education
Univ. of New Hampshire, Durham, NH (United States). Inst. for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Earth and Environmental Systems Inst.

India is one of the world's largest food producers, making the sustainability of its agricultural system of global significance. Groundwater irrigation underpins India's agriculture, currently boosting crop production by enough to feed 170 million people. Groundwater overexploitation has led to drastic declines in groundwater levels, threatening to push this vital resource out of reach for millions of small-scale farmers who are the backbone of India's food security. Historically, losing access to groundwater has decreased agricultural production and increased poverty. We take a multidisciplinary approach to assess climate change challenges facing India's agricultural system, and to assess the effectiveness of large-scale water infrastructure projects designed to meet these challenges. We find that even in areas that experience climate change induced precipitation increases, expansion of irrigated agriculture will require increasing amounts of unsustainable groundwater. Finally, the large proposed national river linking project has limited capacity to alleviate groundwater stress. Thus, without intervention, poverty and food insecurity in rural India is likely to worsen.

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Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0005171

OSTI ID:: 1436294

Journal Information:: Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 8; ISSN 1748-9326

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 99 works

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Groundwater depletion limits the scope for adaptation to increased rainfall variability in India Fishman, Ram Climatic Change, Vol. 147, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2146-x	journal	February 2018
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