Abstract:
Declining water table has emerged as the most serious challenge to sustainability of irrigated agriculture in many states of India. In the trans Indo-Gangetic plains comprising Punjab and Haryana, water table in few blocks is declining at the rate of 1 m per annum over the last one decade. As such farmers are replacing centrifugal units with submersible units particularly in the rice-wheat cropping areas. Already, upto 90% of total numbers of centrifugal units have been replaced. It is observed that such a large-scale replacements would disturb the groundwater balance of the region and would promote overexploitation of the groundwater. Besides it would impact the irrigation water quality, soil quality and the cropping patterns. It would have a greater impact on energy scenario. It is assessed that on an average at current level of electrical tariff, farmers have to pay around 2-2.5 times the cost of electricity over a normal centrifugal pump. It would accentuate the gap between the rich and poor farmers as well as would be a potential source of conflict in the rural areas. The paper highlights these observations through field surveys conducted in the trans Indo-Gangetic plains of India. Based on studies conducted at CSSRI, Karnal and other organizations in this region, a basketful of alternative strategies have been listed that would help to stabilize the water table at the current level of rice— wheat cropping in the region
