Water resource usage patterns for strategic crop production

Irrigation water is a basic requirement of crop production. It was reported that during 2010–11 out of 398.16, 20.32, and 1.23 BCM total net ground water availability; 222.36, 34.17 and 2.17 BCM water was used for irrigation respectively in India, Punjab and Amritsar district. The major share of available water was used for irrigation (90 to 98 per cent). In the crop production sector, 43.56 per cent of total grossed cropped area was under rice crop but it used 80.02 per cent share of the total irrigation water in district Amritsar during 2010–11. It was estimated that under current groundwater development and crop production situation in the district the breakeven point for available water for paddy crop was 566.84 MCM. Therefore there is an urgent need to strategically reduce the water use share for paddy crop from 80.02 to 47.92 per cent of the total available irrigation water in the district.