GROUNDWATER DEPLETION

About:

• India is the second-largest producer of wheat in the world, with over 30 million hectares in the country dedicated to producing this crop.
  
  
• Some of the important winter crops are wheat, barley, mustard and peas.
  
  

Recent study:

• But with severe groundwater depletion, the cropping intensity or the amount of land planted in the winter season may decrease by up to 20% by 2025, notes a new paper.
  
  
• The international team studied India’s three main irrigation types on winter cropped areas: dug wells, tube wells, canals, and also analysed the groundwater data from the Central Ground Water Board. They found that 13% of the villages in which farmers plant a winter crop are located in critically water-depleted regions.
  
  
• The team writes that these villages may lose 68% of their cropped area in future if access to all groundwater irrigation is lost. The results suggest that these losses will largely occur in northwest and central India.