Agronomic research on water management in India: An overview

Water resource management is critically important in India because of the growing demand for food and because the incomes and employment of the majority of the rural Indian population depend on agriculture. Agriculture is the largest single water user amongst various sectors with about 65–70% of fresh water being currently used for irrigation even in some cases it draws as much as 90% of the total water. However, the excessive and indiscriminate use of water has often resulted in substantial harm to the soil and crop productivity. Water management has been a key issue in realizing commendable progress in agricultural production. All India Coordinated Research Project on Water Management, Water Technology Centre, Water and Land Management Institute and various central and state agricultural universities in the country have made remarkable progress in evolving different strategies and technologies for improving sustainable use of available water resources for enhancing water and crop productivity. These different institutions are involved in bringing out location-specific and field based efficient water management technologies for enhancing yield of individual crop and cropping systems under different agro-ecological regions and water availability conditions. However, there is a widespread concern that the stock of the natural resources is dwindling and its quality is deteriorating. Since agriculture is highly dependent on the natural resources, and therefore, these resources must be managed scientifically and efficiently.