1 | P a g e

Technical Report on Current Irrigation Practices in Andhra Pradesh

Prepared by Poulomi Banerjee(PhD)

Bharti Integrated Rural Development

Society

2 | P a g e

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Irrigation has been a major player in the story of agricultural performance of Andhra Pradesh. It constitutes about 43 percent of the crop land, contributing to more than 66percent of the agricultural output of the state. Statistics shows that even though Net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from 1955-56 onwards the area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. Cropping intensity increased from 110 per cent in 1960-61 to 123 per cent in 1999-2000. This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in 1960-61 to 4.29 million hectares in 1999-2000. Primarily dependent on rainfall irrigational growth of the state exhibited spatial and temporal variations over the years.

Traditionally, the state is being irrigated through canal, tank, well and other sources. Till mid 19980s surface irrigation in form of major and medium canal remained the principal irrigational sources of the state. During 2008-2009, the net irrigate area by canals was 16.70m lakh hectares as against 16.10 lakh hectares in 2007-08 recording, an increase of 3.7 percent. The highest area irrigated is in Guntur district. While huge expenditures on the major and medium projects were incurred, there was no proportionate allocation for maintenance and infrastructure, which, inter alia resulted in poor utilisation. Thus, after 50 years and an investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, additional area irrigated under major and medium irrigation in Andhra Pradesh was 17.87 lakh ha at a cost of Rs 42,000 per ha. Interestingly, despite huge investments, the area under canal irrigation, after recording positive growth till 1990, started declining during the 1990s. The evolution of novel institutional arrangements like WUAs during the late 1990s does not seem to have helped in altering the trend. Besides, there are gaps in potential contemplated, created and utilized for the major and medoium canal irrigation projects. More importantly, there is a wide gap between capacity contemplated and that actually created. Actually created irrigation is as low as 26 per cent of capacity contemplated in the case of medium projects and 66 per cent in the case of major projects.

Tanks formed one of the significant storage structures in the peninsular tract of Andhra Pradesh. At present, there are about 70,000 tanks in the state, of which Telangana has 44 per cent followed by coastal Andhra (38 per cent) and Rayalaseema (18 per cent). Although they form one of the oldest irrigational sources, there seems to be a consistent declining trend in the recorded net irrigated area under tanks during the last few decades. This is especially true in Telengana and Rayelseema regions, where net tank irrigated area has decreased by 103,000 and 242,000 ha, respectively. One of the prime factor responsible for any decline in either tank or canal irrigation is fast growth of ground water irrigation.

It has been observed that, towards the end of 1990s the irrigation sector of the state experienced rapid transformation from surface to groundwater. In other words, the colonial irrigation strategy, created pockets of agrarian prosperity in canal commands (i.e. the area below the reservoir/weir irrigated by gravity canals). The need was felt by peasants in the state to secure the means of irrigation which could permit intensification and diversification of land use. The availability of small mechanical pumps and boring rigs provided a technological breakthrough. Beginning in 1970, this combination of circumstances catalyzed a groundwater revolution in the state resulted into steady rise of net irrigated area. With the

3 | P a g e

fact that tanks and canal systems are unable to meet the growing demand of irrigation; 1990, saw a transformation from a centrally managed surface irrigation regime to atomistically managed water scavenging irrigation regime particularly in the hard rock regions of Telangana and Rayalseema.

This was a wholly new phenomenon for the state and lack of understanding of the groundwater aquifer on one hand and effective policy formulation on the other resulted in rampant, unmanageable exploitation of groundwater. This became all the more critical with increase climatic uncertainties, particularly rainfall variability. Several studies pointed out that in the recent years (since 2002), irrigation growth of the state has become very sensitive to rainfall. This is evident from decline in the ground water irrigation in the shallow hard rock regions of Telengana and Rayelseema occasionally suffering from droughts. Evidence suggests that climate change has transformed groundwater into a more critical and yet threatened resource, and requires a reorientation of the state’s water management strategy for its further growth. Given the fact that marginal and small farmers are most vulnerable to any climatic extremities developing efficient management strategies for effective irrigational development is crucial. In fact, managing shortages and understanding the relationships between shocks in water supplies and agricultural systems have thus become critical in irrigation policy. Literature on climate change has extensively advocated several supply augmentation (increased storage capacity, improved conveyance and distribution system, better operation and maintenance, and development of new sources of water ) and demand management options (users’ participation, crop diversification toward high input crops, better land preparation and cropping practices, better irrigation scheduling and modern methods, etc). Based on extensive literature review, region specific recommendation on adaptation strategies being made for the SPACC project. Managed aquifer recharge and conjunctive use of surface and groundwater emerged as an important supply driven measures to combat climate change. While Watershed Management, judicious use of drip and sprinklers irrigation, contingency crop planning and effective community mobilization and institution building identified as effective demand driven adaptation strategies effective for project areas.

4 | P a g e

CHAPTER ONE Introduction

1.1 Background:

rrigation serves as a cultural and social tool that can help a society develop along a desired trajectory (Groenfeldt 2005). It is an age old practice and in fact as old man’s first attempt at crop growing. Thus hydrological installations were among the earliest

technological achievements of the human kind. In the era of the Green Revolution, irrigation served as the keystone of agricultural growth and investments. The impacts of irrigation development were generally viewed as desirable for creating a modern society as subsistence farmers shifted to higher value crops and were drawn more firmly into the market economy. Irrigation has dictated and decided largely the pace and the process of agricultural development (Agarwal & Narain 1999).

Needless to say that, irrigation is not a modern day concept. Human civilization grew up near natural water resources and there are many records of the practice of irrigation from rivers and from man-made canals, wells and tanks. Excavation of the ruins of Mohenjodaro of the Indus valley civilization that flourished and reached its peak in 3000 BC illustrates the existence of a network of well –designed water supply and drainage systems. Over centuries, India has developed varied range of techniques to harvest every possible form of water- from rainwater to ground water, stream, and river to flood water. Existence of extensive tank irrigation in southern India bears the testimony of working of the ancient water harvesting structures till today.

Irrigation thus played the key role in India’s agrarian economy and Andhra Pradesh being no exception. Agriculture is the bed rock of the state economy with about 72.7% of the total population depending on it. Andhra Pradesh has one of the largest irrigated areas. With a gross irrigated area of 6.28 m. ha, the state accounts for nearly 7.3 per cent of the total irrigation in the country.Net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from 1955-56 onwards. However, area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. The net area irrigated during 2009-10, constitutes about 42.2 % of the net area sown of the state. Cropping intensity, measured in terms of ratio between gross area sown to net area sown, has increased from 110 per cent in 1960-61 to 127 percent in 2009-08 (Reddy 2003, SCR 2009-10). This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in 1960-61 to 4.21 million hectares (SCR 2009-10).

Along with the gross area irrigated, there has been a change in the sources of irrigation, particularly in post 1980s. The state is principally irrigated by canals, tanks, tube wells and other sources. Godavari and Krishna are principally supplying water for irrigation purposes through canals. Apart from canal irrigation, tanks irrigation constitutes one of

I

5 | P a g e

the oldest structures used for irrigation and ground water storage. However, during 1980s and mid 90s the area under canal and tank irrigation substantially declined with exponential growth in well irrigation, particularly deep tube wells. Today, nearly 49 per cent of the net irrigation is from shallow and tube wells (Reddy 2007; Amarasinghe et al. 2007). Such a change may be attributed to the decline in public investment in agri- culture in recent years. These changes have environmental consequences. The increase in area under well irrigation coupled with the decline in tank irrigation invariably results in overexploitation of groundwater resulting in environmental problems such as desertification in the fragile resource regions (Reddy 2003). The problem has become more severe with the fact that state is mostly underlain by hard rock aquifers, with very poor storage and yield potential. Most parts of the state do not provide a favorable environment for intensive use of groundwater resources (Kumar et al. 2011). Yet, limited access to water from surface irrigation systems such as reservoir and canal-based systems and tanks, makes farmers resort to well irrigation through open wells. Energisation of wells through rural electrification and subsidized power further added impetus for the farmers to go for tube well irrigation. Though canal irrigation still dominates in the coastal Andhra region, well irrigation replaced tank irrigation largely in Telangana and Rayalaseema (Reddy 2003).

Such exponential growth of tube-wells particularly in the rainfed zones of Telengana and Rayalalseema has raised alarms across development activists, academia and policy makers. Number of suggestions made over the past 10-15 years to tackle alarming growth of tube wells coupled with groundwater depletion problems and to sustain groundwater irrigation for socio-economic development. The policy imperatives largely focused on community regulation of groundwater use at the village level; electricity metering and energy pricing; shift in cropping pattern, with replacement of irrigated paddy by dry land crops; watershed management and artificial groundwater recharge; and large-scale adoption of micro irrigation systems, and increased utilization of groundwater in canal command areas.

But, a close look at the growing literature on effective irrigation management or to say efficient water management in irrigation shows that these management solutions are not based on scientific consideration of the true factors that determine the technical feasibility and socio-economic viability of these solution, but instead are run-of the mill ideas based on popular perceptions. It has been largely realized that neither the technical solutions nor a socio-economic approach independently can provide a sustainable solutions. This became all the more critical with current consciousness of climate change variability. Against this apprehension, the following report attempts to assess the irrigation status of the state from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Considerable attention has been given in bringing out the hydrology, hydrodynamics, geological, economic, social and ethical intricacies in irrigation practices (Custodio, 2000; Kumar et al., 2001, Kumar et al., 2011). Emphasis been laid to understand the relation between climate change and water use within different irrigation practices so as to come up with appropriate adoptive strategies to cope up climate change variability.

6 | P a g e

1.2 Methodology and Data Sources: The report is essentially based on extensive literature review on current irrigational status of the state of Andhra Pradesh. Secondary level information on sources of irrigation, ground water, rainfall, cropping pattern etc has been obtained from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture, Groundwater, Irrigation and Horticulture. Annexure 1 provides the list of indicators and formats used to collect secondary data.

1.3 Chapterisation: The following technical report is divided into four chapters including the introductory one. This is followed by a detail account of the current irrigation practices of the state, emphasizing on trends and turning points. The main focus of the chapter is to craft out historical evolution of irrigational pattern in Andhra Pradesh and also to investigate the implication of major changes in its trends. Chapter III gives an overview of the cropping patterns across district highlighting the determinants of crop diversification. Chapter IV talks about adaptive strategies to climate change in irrigated agriculture. Based on extensive literature review on best practices the chapter attempts to recommends several resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategies as to mange climate variability and ensures sustainable agriculture management. Chapter concludes with summary and policy implications.

References:

Agarwal Anil and Sunita Narain(1999): “Making Water Management Everybody’s Business: Water Harvesting and Rural Development in India” Gatekeeper Series no. 87.

Amarasinghe, Upali, B.K. Anand, Madar Samad and A. Narayanamoorthy (2007) “Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Trends and Turning Points,” paper presented at the workshop on Strategic Analyses of India's River Linking Project-A Case Study of the Polavaram- Vijayawada link, C Fred Bentley Conference Center, Building # 212, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, August 30, 2007.

Custodio, E. (2000) The Complex Concept of Over-exploited Aquifer, Secunda Edicion, Uso Intensivo de Las Agua Subterráneas, Madrid.

Groenfeldt, D. (2005): “Building on tradition: Indigenous irrigation knowledge and sustainable development in Asia”. Agric. Hum. Values 8:114-120. Kumar M. Dinesh, MVK Sivamohan, V. Niranjan, Nitin Bassi (2011) “Groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh: Time to Address Real Issues” Occasional Paper No. 4-0211.

7 | P a g e

Kumar, M. Dinesh and O. P. Singh (2001) “Market Instruments for Demand Management in the Face of Scarcity and Overuse of Water in Gujarat,” Water Policy, 3 (5).

Season and Crop Report (SCP), Andhra Pradesh (2009-2010), Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Hyderabad.

V. Ratna Reddy (2003): “Irrigation: Development and Reforms” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 12/13 (Mar. 22 - Apr. 4, 2003), pp. 1179-1189.

8 | P a g e

CHAPTER TWO Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Development and Prospect

“In Comparing socio-economic indicators and Millennium Development Goals, there is almost perfect

correlation between poverty and lack of access to irrigation”. (Government of Andhra Pradesh)

2.1 Introduction:

rrigation can be defined as artificial watering to substitute any deficiency in natural rainfall with an objective of a steady expansion of crop output. It is a science of planning and designing an efficient, low cost, economic irrigation system tailored to fit

natural conditions. It is engineering of controlling and harnessing the various natural sources of water by construction of dams and reservoirs, canals, pickups and other works and finally distributing the water to agricultural fields (MIS 2006-07). At one hand, it becomes a must for crop husbandry in the rain deficient tracts of the world. On the other end of the scale, in regions endowed with favorable rainfall for good part of the year, access to irrigation during the wet crop season can act as an insurance against failure in rainfall at the crucial stage of the plant growth (Dhawan 1988). Thus to carry out agricultural operations efficiently throughout the year, controlled, assured and continuous water supply through irrigation is very essential. Realizing the importance of irrigation system, Mahatma Gandhi observed, “Nothing can be more important than the provision of agricultural growth. In the absence of irrigation facilities, agriculture is nothing more than a gamble”. Similarly, Thomas Fuller observed that “we never know the worth of water till the well is dry”. In order to adopt intensive method of cultivation along with a cropping pattern, irrigation system is considered very imperative. Increased and assured irrigation leads to greater investments in inputs by farmers, a shift to high-value crops, intensification of agriculture and increased employment. Irrigation, therefore, can be considered a lead input of rural development in general and agriculture in particular.

Irrigation has been a major player in the story of agricultural performance of Andhra Pradesh. It contributes to more than 66 percent of the agricultural output of the state. Traditionally, the state is being irrigated through major, medium, minor canal and tank irrigation systems. Post 1990s saw a marked change in the irrigational pattern of the state where positive growth of either canal or tank diminishes giving rise to well irrigation. Ground water irrigation thus overtook the surface irrigation resulting into over exploitation of the annual recharge particularly in the dryland areas of Telengana and Rayalseema. Such change was accompanied by change in cropping pattern towards non grain food products. All these have raised concern among researchers, policy makers and practitioners about the environmental adversities associated with increased drawndown, particularly within the realm of climatic change. Several studies on seasonality and rainfall conditions for last 20 years reveal an increase in deviation from normal particularly in the

I

9 | P a g e

districts of Nalgonda, Khammam, Warangal, Guntur, Prakasam, Karimnagar, Medak, Kaddapa, Chittor, East and West Godavari. Such deficient and uncertain rainfall coupled up with faulty agricultural practices and increase in ground water irrigation has made already strenuous dryland land areas more vulnerable to climate change vagaries.

Considering the fact that increase rainfall uncertainties and preponderance of ground water irrigation, particularly in the semiarid districts, will have serious consequences on the future water demand of the state, it is therefore imperative to have an understanding of the causes and consequences of such shift. Following chapter aims to analyze the trends and turning points of irrigation development in Andhra Pradesh over last 40 years (1970-2010). Attempts have been made to demonstrate how the struggle for water for irrigation shapes the agrarian change of the state. Based on aggregate statistics the following chapter provides a broad brush strokes about the regional irrigational transformation.

2.2 Andhra Pradesh: Geographical and Hydro-geological Characteristics

Andhra Pradesh with a geographical area of 0.275 million sq. km is characterized by a variety of physiographic features ranging from hills to undulating plains and a coastal deltaic environment. The state has three major river basins – those of the Godavari, the Krishna and the Pennar. The State of Andhra Pradesh falls under the Semi Arid Tract (SAT) region in India and is mostly covered by compact and hard rocks, characterized by seasonal rainfall of a highly fluctuating nature, in both space and time. Geomorphologically, the state can be divided into pediplains, coastal alluvial plains and hill ranges. The average annual rainfall is 940 mm with a high of 1200 mm in Srikakulam district and a low of about 550 mm in Anantapur district. The major part of the rainfall (66%) is received from the south-west monsoon during June-September, with the north-east monsoon (October–December) contributing only about 25 per cent of the annual rainfall. Based on rainfall and crops that could be grown, the state is divided into nine agroclimatic zones - High altitude and Tribal Zone, Krishna Zone, Godavari zone, North coastal zone, Northern Telangana zone, Central Telangana Zone, Scarce rainfall zone, Southern Telangana zone and Southern zone.

Andhra Pradesh is underlain by rock types ranging from Archaean rocks to Recent (Holocene) alluvium with a wide range of texture and structure. Nearly 85 per cent of the state, i.e., about 0.233 million sq. km, is underlain by hard rock comprising igneous, volcanic, metamorphic and hard sedimentary rocks. These rocks have negligible primary porosity (GWRA 2007).The remaining 15% of the area, i.e., 0.042 million sq. km is underlain by soft rocks comprising Tertiary rocks, Gondwana sandstones, shales and alluvium of recent age. The total water resources, both surface water and groundwater in the state, are estimated to be 108.15 bcm (3820 tmc), out of which about 62.29 bcm (2200 tmc) are being currently utilized for drinking, agriculture, industry and power generation. The annual per capita availability of water works out to slightly more than 1400 cum, and present annual per capita utilization is about 800 cum. As per UN indicators, the state falls in the “water scarce” category warranting appropriate water governance techniques (Jain et al. 2009). The major problem of water control in Andhra Pradesh is to store rainfall and surface water in the monsoon and use it in the deficit

10 | P a g e

months; in other words, sources of irrigation must perform a retentive function as well as a supplemental one (Rawal 2001).

In hard rock region average well yields ranging from 75 to 150l/m are recorded. Present day mean well yields are around 0.50 ha.m per annum and they are skewed towards lower side. Gondwana rocks form extensive aquifers and sustain well yields quite beyond their annual replenishment. Tube well constructed in these rocks have yielded 100 to 1000l/m for drawdowns ranging from 12 to 38 m. the open wells tapping these formations yield from 10 to 20 cubic meter/day.

Several other geological formations that provide potentially high ground water storage are The Kamthi sandstones, rajamundry sandstones, Krishna-godavari deltaic alluvium tract and coastal alluvium tract. Kamthi sandstones beyond the depth of 250 m bgl are intercalated with shales and clays. The aquifers are confined and the transmissivity varies between 28 AND 950M2/day. Rajamundry sandstones form another good aquifer yielding about 6 to 15 m drawdowns. The alluvial aquifers have high porosity and permeability thereby having potentially high water retentive capacity.

2.3 Irrigation Overview: Trends and Turning points

Andhra Pradesh is one of the most important agrarian states in the country. Irrigated agriculture has been fundamental to state’s economic development and poverty alleviation. The expansion of irrigation is widely believed to have played a major role in the region’s rapid agricultural growth over the last three decades. Irrigation constitutes about 43 percent of the crop land. Some 25 percent of the gross domestic product and 70 percent of the employment is based on agriculture (Kumar et al 2011; Subrahmanyam and Sekhar 2003; Amarasinghe et al., 2007). The government of Andhra Pradesh, in its Vision 2020 document, envisaged a growth rate of 6.0 per cent per annum in the first decade of this century [Government of Andhra Pradesh 1999]. Statistic shows that even though Net sown area remained more or less stagnant at 11 million hectares (ha) from 1955-56 onwards the area under irrigation and cropping intensity continued to increase during the 1980s and 1990s. Cropping intensity increased from 110 per cent in 1960-61 to 123 per cent in 1999-2000. This is mainly due to the increase in area under irrigation, which has grown from 2.90 million hectares in 1960-61 to 4.29 million hectares in 1999-2000. Primarily dependent on rainfall for irrigation the state exhibits spatial and temporal variations in the quantity of precipitation received from south west and north east monsoons. Such variation has its impact in the growth of irrigation over time and space.

The history of growth of irrigation of Andhra Pradesh can be classified into three distinct phases

(i)Era of adaptive irrigation

(ii)Era of canal construction

11 | P a g e

(iii)Era of atomistic irrigation

(i)Era of adaptive irrigation: Since time immemorial until the early 1800s, farming communities adapted their agrarian lives to the hydrology of river basins. There are records of numerous, often gigantic, irrigation systems constructed by kings and managed by specialized bureaucracies. Diverting and managing monsoon floodwaters to fill up countless small reservoirs was the popular water harvesting systems in hard-rock parts of Andhra Pradesh where seepage losses from water storages were insignificant (Shah 2009). Presence of numerous tanks in Telengana regions testify to this fact.

(ii)Era of canal construction: Around 1810, the British East India Company began changing this adaptive irrigation regime by undertaking gigantic projects that reconfigured river basins. Large canal projects were also undertaken in the south of India, particularly in Andhra Pradesh. In ambitious irrigation projects, the colonial rulers combined the ‘interests of charity and the interests of commerce’ (Whitcombe 2005). The state and centralized irrigation bureaucracies replaced village communities and local landlords as key players in the new regime. Civil engineering began dominating water planning, construction and management, and continued to do so even after India become independent and remains predominant today. The colonial era left India with some of the world’s largest gravity-flow irrigation systems, complete with a highly centralized, bureaucratic irrigation management regime. The irrigation sector was principally dominated by major, medium and minor canal irrigation till 1980s.

(iii) Era of atomistic irrigation: The colonial irrigation strategy, however, created pockets of agrarian prosperity in canal commands (i.e. the area below the reservoir/weir irrigated by gravity canals). The need was felt by peasants around the country to secure the means of irrigation which could permit intensification and diversification of land use. The availability of small mechanical pumps and boring rigs provided a technological breakthrough. Beginning in 1970, this combination of circumstances catalyzed a groundwater revolution in the state resulted into steady rise of net irrigated area. With the fact that tanks and canal systems are unable to meet the growing demand of irrigation; 1990, saw a transformation from a centrally managed surface irrigation regime to atomistically managed water scavenging irrigation regime particularly in the hard rock regions of Telangana and Rayalseema which are largely bypassed by the canal irrigation systems. This was a wholly new phenomenon for the state and due to lack of understanding of the groundwater aquifer on one hand and effective policy formulation on the other resulted in rampant, unmanageable exploitation of groundwater. This became all the more critical with increase climatic uncertainties, as evident by recurring droughts in post 2000.

Figure 2.1 Showing Percentage Growth in Net Irrigated Area in Andhra Pradesh

Gradual significant growth before 1987 Significant abrupt shift in 1987

No significant change between 1987-1996 Significant increasing trend after 1996

Severe drop due to drought

Temporal growth - Net irrigated Area

0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Are

a (m

ha)

Source: GOAP 2007

12 | P a g e

According to Season and Crop Statistics there is a consistent fluctuation in average annual rainfall since 2000 resulting into severe crop failures. Figure 2.1 shows the temporal growth of percentage net irrigated area (NIA) from 1970 till 2005 for the state as a whole. The overall trend in net irrigated area has been positive and significant. 1990 also marked a significant and abrupt rise in NIA essentially due o the dominance of tube well irrigation. From 1990s onwards the trends in irrigation remained fluctuating where temporal decline can be seen between 1990-1995 and 2000-2005 respectively. The recurring droughts coupled up with dysfunctional wells were primarily responsible for such decline. Figure 2.2 shows net and gross area irrigated for the state from 2004-05 till 2010-11. This latest figure also depicts the fluctuating nature of the irrigation trend in the state, where major drop can be noticed in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Rainfall deficiency had been the major cause for such fall.

Figure 2.2 Temporal Growth in Net and Gross Irrigated Area (2004-05 to 2010-11)

Figure 2.3 Showing Percentage Growth in Net Irrigated Area across Agro-Climatic Zone

010000002000000300000040000005000000600000070000008000000

2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Growth in Net and Gross Irrigated Area

net irrigated area gross area irrigated

Spatial variation- Net Irrigated Area

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Are

a (m

ha)

Costal AP Telangana RayalaseemaSource: GOAP 2007

13 | P a g e

Source wise net irrigated area in Andhra Pradesh

49%

30%

17%4%

Canals Tank Groundwater Other sources

Source: GOAP 2007

1980

49%

26%

22%3%

1970 1990

43%

23%

30%

4%

2000

37%

15%

43%

5%

Figure 2.3 shows the percentage net irrigated area across regions in Andhra Pradesh. Some of the important observations made from the figure are, In Telangana, Net Irrigated Area increased both before and after 1987. In Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Net Irrigated Area increased before 1987, but no significant change after 1987. In Rayalseema, Net Irrigated Area decreased before 1987. A slight but statistically not significant increasing trend can be seen after 1987. Following subsections explores the trends of different irrigational sources in the state.

2.3.1 Spatio-Temporal Account of Irrigational Sources in Andhra Pradesh

Figure 2.4 and table 2.1 depicts source wise net irrigate area in Andhra Pradesh from 1970 to 2010-11. Groundwater irrigation expanded rapidly between 1971 and 2010-11. Canals and tanks were the main sources of irrigation in the 1970s and 1980s, contributing to about two-thirds of the total Net Irrigated Area. But, groundwater has been dominating irrigation since the mid-1990s, contributing to more than half the Net Irrigated Area in 2005 (Figure 2.4).From the figure 2.4 it is evident that since 1970 the proportion of groundwater irrigation has increased while those of canal and tanks have decreased. Such a shift necessitates clear understanding of the mode of expansion of different irrigational sources across space and time. The pattern canal and tank irrigation has shown insignificant rise during 2004-05, the trend in well irrigation shows similar trend till 2010-11. Following section discusses about the trends and turning points of major, medium and minor irrigation with special reference to ground water irrigation.

Figure 2.4 Showing the Percentage Net Irrigated Area by Different Sources in Andhra Pradesh

Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, GOAP, Hyderabad

14 | P a g e

Table2.1: Showing Temporal Variations in Area Irrigated Under Different Sources

(i) Major and Medium Canal Irrigation: Canals are the major sources of irrigation in the state. During 2008-2009, canal irrigation contributed about 34.6 percent of the net area irrigated by all sources in the state. The net irrigate area by canals during the year 2008-09 was 16.70m lakh hectares as against 16.10 lakh hectares in 2007-08 recording, an increase of 3.7 percent. The highest area irrigated is in Guntur district. While huge expenditures on the major and medium projects were incurred, there was no proportionate allocation for maintenance and infrastructure, which, inter alia resulted in poor utilisation. Thus, after 50 years and an investment of over Rs 7,000 crore, additional area irrigated under major and medium irrigation in Andhra Pradesh was 17.87 lakh ha at a cost of Rs 42,000 per ha. Besides, the additional area brought under well irrigation is marginal in these regions. Interestingly, despite huge investments, the area under canal irrigation, after recording positive growth till 1990, started declining during the 1990s. The evolution of novel institutional arrangements like WUAs during the late 1990s does not seem to have helped in altering the trend. The total potential created in major and medium irrigation sector is slightly more than the 13.313 lakh ha potential bequeathed to the state at the beginning of the planning era (prior to 1950-51). There are gaps in potential contemplated, created and utilised. These gaps are wider in the case of medium irrigation than in major irrigation projects Capacity utilisation in medium projects is 65 per cent against 83 percent in the case of major

years Area Irrigated by different sources (000hec)

Canals Tanks Wells Other sources

2000-01 1649 727 1954 198

2001-02 1563 567 1928 180

2002-03 1209 425 1843 137

2003-04 1136 490 1870 138

2004-05 1346 477 1903 155

2005-06 1572 662 1987 172

2006-07 1622 602 2073 155

2007-08 1610 585 2278 162

2008-09 1670 648 2323 180

2009-10 1446 332 2284 153

2010-11 1747 650 2461 176

15 | P a g e

irrigation projects. More importantly, there is a wide gap between capacity contemplated and that actually created. Actually created irrigation is as low as 26 per cent of capacity contemplated in the case of medium projects and 66 per cent in the case of major projects. (ii) Tank irrigation: Tanks are small sized reservoirs formed by small earthen embankments to store runoff for irrigation. It is one of the oldest sources of irrigation in the State. For the construction of a tank, site is selected within a watershed protected by vegetation and containing minimum of cultivated land so as to ensure minimum rate of sedimentation which lowers its storage capacity. Adequate soil conservation measures are essentially adopted to ensure quantity and quality of water inflow into the tank. Tanks irrigation can be classified, according to the nature of supply of water:

• System tanks: The system tanks get assured supply from nearby rivers or canal system and as such they may not have their own catchment. • Non-system tanks: Also called ‘isolated’ tanks. The non-system tanks depend on the runoff from their own catchment. They are not connected to any other tank. • Grouped tank: The grouped tanks, as the name implies, consist of a series of tanks connected together such that outflow from the upper tank is stored in the lower one for irrigation.

There are about 70,000 tanks in the state, of which Telangana has 44 per cent followed by coastal Andhra (38 per cent) and Rayalaseema (18 per cent). Although low rainfall in three consecutive years explains the short-term variation, there seems to be a consistent declining trend in the recorded net irrigated area under tanks during the last few decades. However, not all of the NIA lost under tank irrigation systems, was lost from the production system. Wherever the net tank irrigated area has decreased, much of that is replaced by groundwater irrigation. Thus, interestingly, the region with the highest dependence on groundwater (Rayalaseema) has the lowest number of tanks. This is especially true in Telengana and Rayelseema regions, where net tank irrigated area has decreased by 103,000 and 242,000 ha, respectively, while the net groundwater irrigated area has increased by 194,000 and 307,000 ha, respectively. It seems that tanks in these areas are operating as a valuable recharge structures for utilizing groundwater irrigation. The situation is different in coastal Andhra due to perennial river basins like Krishna and Godawari

Along with fall in the rainfall, problem also lies in the functioning of tanks. At the state level, 69 per cent of the tanks are under repair, which accounts for 82 per cent of the area irrigated by tanks. Effectively, only 18 per cent of the tank 'ayacut' (command area) is being irrigated. Given the high complementarily between well and tank irrigation, it is necessary to strengthen the tank systems in Rayalaseema and Telangana. A better option would be to convert existing tanks into percolation tanks so that groundwater potential would improve.

(iii) Minor Surface Irrigation: All Irrigation schemes having a culturable command area up to 2000 hectares (4942 Acres) individually are classified as Minor Irrigation schemes.

16 | P a g e

A Minor Irrigation Scheme is to be identified with reference to source of water, pattern of lift, ownership etc. Different water lifts operating on the same source such as river, tank and well will normally constitute different units. Here only surface flow and surface lift irrigation being considered, while tube well and dug wells are considered separately in the ground water section.

According to Fourth Minor Irrigation Census, there are 81,010 surface flow irrigation schemes during the reference year 2006-07. When compared to the data collected during previous census, the number of schemes has decreased by 1.74 percent. The reasons for decrease are some of the tanks have been abandoned and ayacut of some of the Minor irrigation sources covered under major and medium irrigation schemes which have been taken up during the last five years. Further, some of tank beds wherever dried up are either encroached/assigned to the Non Agriculture usage. Generally this is observed in Mahaboobnagar, Adilabad and Srikaklam districts. The irrigation potential created by these schemes is 16,47,405 hectares where as the utilization is 6,94,396 hectares, means 42.15 percent of the potential created. The percentage of utilization is decreased when compared to that of previous census. The decrease in utilization may be due to the local encroachments of the tank beds etc. The average area irrigated by a surface flow irrigation scheme is 8.57 hectares whereas it was 11.58 hectares during previous census period, showing an apparent decrease.

Total number of surface Flow Irrigation Schemes is recorded as 0.81 lakhs in the State. The Highest number of surface Flow Irrigation Schemes are recorded as 0.09 lakhs in Viziaagaram district where as the least are recorded as almost negligible (194) in Guntur district. The Gross Irrigational potential created by the Surface Flow Irrigation Schemes in the state is 16.47 lakh Hectares. The Highest and least GIPC are recorded as 1.42 lakh Hectares and 0.09 lakh Hectares in Chittoor and Guntur districts

respectively. The Actual potential utilized under the schemes is recorded as 6.94 lakhs Hectares in the state. The highest and least potential utilized are recorded as 0.98 lakhs hectares and 0.01 lakhs Hectares in Viziagaram and Guntur districts respectively.

(iv) Ground water irrigation: The ground water irrigation which has contributed majorly towards increase in net irrigated area in recent years shows some notable trend patterns between 1970-71 and 2005-06. Till the early 1970s, tanks were the dominant sources of irrigation in the Telangana

Figure 2.5 Showing Temporal Growth in Ground Water Irrigation

Temporal growth

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Net

gro

undw

ater

irrig

ated

ar

ea (m

ha)

Source: GOAP 2007

17 | P a g e

and Rayalaseema regions, while canals were the main source in the Coastal Andhra. After the 1970s, well irrigation particularly tube wells, replaced the traditional tank irrigation in parts of Telangana and Rayalaseema. Over a period of four and half decades, the proportion of area under well irrigation in the state went up - from 27% in 1963 to 40% in 2008 with significant increase in Telangana Region (from 21% to 38% between 1963 and 2008). On an average, the density of wells increased from 5 to over 100 wells per sq km.

Among the well irrigation, recent growth patterns indicate that groundwater irrigation especially that through dug well has declined substantially. Dug wells were the main contributor to the growth of groundwater irrigation before late 1990s. However, the Net Irrigated Area through dug wells has been decreasing in recent years. Part of this decline was due to the droughts of 2002-2004. But the declining trend seems to be continuing beyond the drought period. It is clear that reliance of tube-well irrigation is increasing. In fact, tube-well irrigation seemed to be taking the place of dug wells in

most regions.

Tube wells: It is one of the major irrigational sources of the

state. Nearly 49 per cent of the net irrigation of Andhra Pradesh is from dug wells and tube wells (Reddy 2007; Amarasinghe et al., 2007). From 1970 till 2000 the ground water irrigation through shallow and deep tube wells increased from 16 percent to 43 percent. At present there are 22.23 lakhs

Figure 2.6 Spatio-temporal Variation of Ground Water Irrigation

Figure 2.7 Showing Temporal Growth of Percentage Net Irrigated Area under Tube and Dug Wells

Spatial variation

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Net

gro

undw

ater

irrig

ated

ar

ea (m

ha)

Costal AP Telangana RayalaseemaSource: GOAP 2007

Net irrigatd area under tubewells and dugwells in Andhra Pradesh

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Are

a (m

ha)

Dugwells Tubewells

18 | P a g e

wells in the state, of which 13.36 lakhs are in Telangana, 4.71 lakhs in Rayalaseema and 4.16 lakhs in coastal Andhra. Further, 11.46 lakhs wells are estimated to be feasible with a distribution of 3.89, 1.38 and 6.19 lakhs wells in the respective regions. The net irrigated area through wells shows a consistent rise since 1970s onwards. There was an accelerated growth after 1987. The growth reached its peaked in 2000-01. However post 2000-01 saw a dropped in area irrigated by nearly 1.6lac ha from the highest figure.

Among all the three regions Telangana shows a fastest growth, followed by coastal Andhra and Rayalseema. But, what is interesting is that this had no correlation with the growth in number of wells, unlike what many scholars contended in the past. The average area irrigated by a well was recorded as nearly 1.07 ha in 2003-04, with the growth in number of wells to tune of 8.62lac, not the growth irrigated area. There are number of factors responsible for such declining well productivity. The state is mostly underlain by hard rock aquifers, with very poor storage and yield potential. Due to low specific yield (0.01-0.03), sharp rise in water levels is observed in aquifers during monsoon, leaving little space for infiltration from structures. While harnessing water for recharge is extremely important during normal and wet years, the natural recharge in hard rock formation is high during such years as it is a function of seasonal rainfall, further reducing the scope for artificial recharge.

Soils pose additional challenges. Results obtained from short term infiltration test carried out in dug wells in Andhra Pradesh in two different soil conditions show that the infiltration rate becomes negligible (< 0.60 mm/hr) within 10 minutes of starting the test in the case of silty clay. If the infiltration rate approaches to zero fast, it will negative affect the recharge efficiency of percolation ponds. As thin soil cover has low infiltration, the extent of the problem would be larger in hard rock areas (ideal for percolation ponds) with thin soil cover. Dickenson (1994) based on several infiltration studies shows that rate of infiltration declines to a minimum value within 4-5 days of ponding. This also will have adverse effects on the performance of structures built in areas experiencing flash floods and high evaporation rates, solutions for which would be wetting or drying of pond beds through regulation of inflows. On the other hand, storage of water on the surface in small reservoirs would result in huge evaporation losses.

With increase in number of wells, the influence area of a wells increase and the available groundwater gets distributed among larger number of wells (Kumar 2007). The average area irrigated by a well recorded a minor improvement in 2005-06 (1.12ha). This could be attributed to factors such as increase in recharge from rainfall, change in cropping pattern, and increase in groundwater pumping in command areas, resulting from reduced surface water release from canals for irrigation.

2.4 Emerging Concerns in Irrigated Agriculture of Andhra Pradesh

The Indian subcontinent has the largest semi-arid tropical (SAT) area among developing nations. The State of Andhra Pradesh falls under the SAT region in India and is mostly covered by compact and hard rocks, characterized by seasonal rainfall of a highly

19 | P a g e

fluctuating nature, in both space and time. As a consequence of the green revolution and an increase in industrial activity, there has been an increase in the utilization of groundwater resources during the last two decades in Andhra Pradesh. The development has also caused a number of problems, such as water table decline, decrease in well yields and seawater intrusion. Although major irrigation projects have contributed to improved agricultural production, the associated problems of waterlogging, salinization and loss of valuable bioresources have led to the gradual degradation of the land, affecting agricultural productivity. Surface water and groundwater have also been polluted in several parts of the State because of untreated discharge of effluents from the industries into nearby streams or open lands. Following section provides account of some of the pressing issues faced the irrigation sector of Andhra Pradesh.

(i) Over Exploitation of Ground Water Resources: Rainfall within the state has remained the key determinant for both surface water and groundwater irrigation. Any change in the rainfall pattern therefore significantly influenced the overall irrigation efficiency of the state. Time and again literature on rainfall variability indicated increase in uncertainties, particularly, over the last 20 years. This in turn has resulted into drying up of tanks and emergence of rampant tube well as the most feasible and lucrative alternative. Such indiscriminate usage of ground water is more intense in drought affected districts of Telengana and Rayelseema, which are largely bypassed by the canal irrigation systems. For instance, the districts like Anatapur, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda etc show 60 to 99 percent usage rate.

Estimating groundwater was first being made by State Ground Water Board in 1984-85 through water table fluctuation method. The total dynamic groundwater resources of AP were thus estimated at 25.3 bcm per annum as in 1984-85 and the utilizable groundwater resources for irrigation were worked out to be 25.30 bcm per annum The net annual groundwater draft in 1984- 85 was 7.07 bcm. Thus, a balance of 18.23 bcm was available for future development. It is to be remembered that these estimates consider only the dynamic groundwater resources of water table aquifers.

Table 2.2: Estimates of Groundwater in Different Years of Assessment (in bcm)

year Annual

Availability

Annual

utilization

Balance

1985 25.30 7.07 18.23

1993 35.39 10.13 25.16

2002 30.56 12.97 17.57

2003 32.76 14.86 17.90

20 | P a g e

2007 34.70 14.11 20.59

Source: Data compiled from Groundwater Resource Estimated Reports of different years, Ground Water Department, GoAP.

The net groundwater availability per annum, as per 1993 estimates, for the entire state was estimated to be about 35.3 bcm, which was 14.4% of the total quantity of water received through normal precipitation. From this, about 15%, i.e., 5.3 bcm was earmarked for drinking and other committed uses, leaving a balance of 30 bcm for irrigation. The net annual groundwater draft for irrigation was 7.09 bcm. The level of groundwater development across districts ranged between 7% and 43%, and for the state as a whole it was 25%. The state was divided into 1193 assessment units, which include basins with defined hydrological boundaries in hard rock areas with areas ranging between 50 and 450 sq km and Mandals (administrative blocks) in alluvial areas including 36 Salinev Mandals. Computations of net groundwater availability, its utilisation and availability for future use in all the assessment units for command, non-command and poor groundwater quality areas were made separately. The estimates showed the groundwater availability at 30 bcm, usage at 13 bcm and the balance at 17 bcm per annum. The watershed boundaries were revised to 1229 during 2004. The estimates showed that groundwater availability was 32.8 bcm, usage was 14.9 bcm and the balance was 17.9 bcm per annum. These estimates included 1.3 bcm of net annual groundwater availability in poor quality and saline areas. The usage in saline areas was about 0.21 bcm. In comparison with 2002 estimates, there was a definite increase (by about 13%) in groundwater usage across sectors. This was corroborated by a steep decline in the mean water levels almost everywhere in the state. In many areas, water level stands in fractured formation, rather than in weathered formation, as shown by the network of existing Piezometers, and the drying up of traditional OB Wells. Groundwater development was at the highest level (45%) during 2004 due to the prevailing unprecedented drought conditions.

In 2007, estimates were made separately for command and non-command areas using the GEC 1997 methodology, based on the data from Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited (APTRANSCO), Revenue Department and Irrigation Department. The state has been categorized into four zones, viz., safe (<70%), semi-critical (70% to 90%), critical (90 to 100%) and over exploited (>100%), based on the percentage of groundwater exploitation. About 5096 villages, spread over 108 Mandals and 132 watersheds, fall in the over exploited category consequent to the drying up of shallow aquifers. The assessment made by Reddy and Reddy 2001 shows that groundwater resources have reached a very critical stage in non-command areas compared to command area. The study revel that all the areas of the state that are not served by canal command, including the areas in districts like West Godavari, Anantapur, etc., are showing very high usage of the available groundwater and this is reflected increase drawdown which exceeds 70% of the safe limit of exploitation.

According to Department of Ground Water, Andhra Pradesh the state can be classified into four zones of ground water usage.

21 | P a g e

(i) Very High Usage(overall stage of development is >70 percent) districts comprising Ranga Reddy, Anatapur, Nizamabad and Medak.

(ii) The high Usage Districts(overall development is >50 percent and < 70 percent) comprising of Kaddapa, Chittor, Warangal and Nalgonda

(iii) The moderate Usage( overall development is >30 percent and < 50 percent) districts comprising of Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nellor,Kurnool and Prakasam.

(iv) Low Usagae( oval stage of development is <30 percent) districts, Krishna,Srikakulam, west Godavari, Vishakha pattanam, Vizianagaram, East Godavari, Khammam and Guntur).

Based on this present stage of development, the state has 132 units under over exploited category, 89 under critical category, 175 under semi critical and 833 under safe category.

As per the estimates made in 2010, 9 per cent of the blocks in the state are over-exploited. Six percent are in ‘critical stage’ with the average annual abstraction in the range of 90-100 per cent of the average annual recharge. Nearly 15 per cent of the blocks are in ‘semi critical’ category. Hence, as per the estimates, nearly 30 per cent of the assessment blocks are facing overdevelopment problems. The magnitude of the problems of over-exploitation is also glaring from the fact that the net area irrigated by open wells has been drastically and consistently declining in the state from 1.03 m. ha to 0.616 m. ha from 1998-99 to 2005—06, the year for which data are available (source: GOAP, 2007 as shown in Amarasinghe et al., 2007).

(iii) Deteriorating Groundwater Quality: The introduction of intensive irrigated agriculture particularly in the semi arid areas of the state has resulted in the development of twin problems of waterlogging, soil salinization and seawater intrusion. This in turn has resulted into reduced crop yields, frequent crop failures, increase in costs of cultivation and reduced income of the small and marginal farmers. According to state Ground water department, totally 30 mandals (east Godavari 10, Guntur 7 and Krishna 13) are categorized as poor quality areas and thereby unsuitable for irrigation purposes.

(iv) Free Electricity and Ground water Exploitation: The impact of the free electricity policy on agriculture has remained one of the causal factors for rapid increase in ground water irrigation. Several studies on ground water irrigation in Andhra Pradesh referred about its detrimental effects on groundwater extraction.

2.5 Summing Up

Andhra Pradesh is undergoing a dramatic shift in the irrigational pattern moving from large scale surface to ground water irrigation. Several studies pointed out that in the recent years (since 2002), irrigation growth of the state has become very sensitive to rainfall. This is evident from decline in the ground water irrigation in the shallow hard rock regions of Telengana and Rayelseema occasionally suffering from droughts. Evidence suggests that climate change has transformed groundwater into a more critical and yet threatened resource, and requires a reorientation of the state’s water

22 | P a g e

management strategy for its further growth. This in turn necessitates detail understanding of the climate change and irrigation nexus so as to come up with effective and sustainable adaptation strategy. Considering this view point succeeding chapter attempts to craft out the irrigation and climate change trajectory. It focuses on several adaptation and resilience strategy adopted by the farmers against climate variability.

References:

Amarasinghe, Upali, B.K. Anand, Madar Samad and A. Narayanamoorthy (2007) “Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Trends and Turning Points,” paper presented at the workshop on Strategic Analyses of India's River Linking Project-A Case Study of the Polavaram- Vijayawada link, C Fred Bentley Conference Center, Building # 212, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, August 30, 2007.

Kumar M. Dinesh, MVK Sivamohan, V. Niranjan, Nitin Bassi (2011) “Groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh: Time to Address Real Issues” Occasional Paper No. 4-0211.

Kumar, M. Dinesh and O. P. Singh (2001) “Market Instruments for Demand Management in the Face of Scarcity and Overuse of Water in Gujarat,” Water Policy, 3 (5).

Rawal Vikas (2001): “Expansion of Irrigation in West Bengal: Mid-1970s to Mid-1990s”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 42 (Oct. 20-26), pp. 4017-4024.

Shah T (2009): “Taming the Anarchy? Groundwater Governance in South Asia.

Whitcombe E (2005): “Irrigation The Cambridge Economic History of India”, vol. 2 ed D Kumar and M Desai (Hyderabad: Orient Longman) pp 677–737.

23 | P a g e

CHAPTER THREE Crop Diversification in Andhra Pradesh

3.1 Introduction

and and water resources are two most crucial factors for economic development in general and agriculture in particular for any economy. Much of the economic prosperity depends on how these resources are being managed in a sustainable

way. Therefore, any mismanagement of these resources due to environmental disasters, myopic government policies or lack of perception on the part of users can lead to severe economic crisis, especially in the long run. This becomes more crucial with recurring incidence of draughts in the semi arid regions of the world. Diversification of agriculture in favor of more competitive and less water intensive crop emerged as a coping strategy to combat climatic risks and uncertainties. Following chapter intends to assess change in the cropping pattern due to increase climatic uncertainties across different agro-climatic zones of Andhra Pradesh. The main focus is to delineate the major crops where diversification is catching up fast and also to see how the most precious resources that is water is getting utilized per crop across time and space in the state. Such an understanding of the pattern of crop diversification would help in crafting appropriate policies regarding water resource management, technological innovations and institutional arrangements benefiting the large mass of small and marginal farmers in the state.

3.2 Patterns of Crop Diversification across Agro-climatic Zones of Andhra Pradesh

Ideally diversification of crops occurs through (i) area augmentation and (ii) crop substitution. Area augmentation comes through utilization of fallow lands and rehabilitation of degraded lands, or increasing cropping intensity. In State like Andhra Pradesh crop diversification mainly occurred through crop substitution. To assess the nature and speed of crop diversification, the production performance and area expansion have been assessed. Table 3.1 shows the area coverage under different crops across years in Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh is known world over as traditionally agricultural state, where agriculture contributes substantial income and employment. Traditionally, paddy is the principal crop of the state contributing about 13% of the rice produce of India (Adusumilli and Bhagya Laxmi 2011). Since 2000, the area devoted to rice and the resulting production in the state have dropped off substantially. This is essentially because command area of canal and tanks, the principal irrigational sources for rice, has reduced considerably over time (Gulati 2007). The large-scale shift from canal and tank irrigation to wells has placed stressful demands on the state’s groundwater resources, with extraction exceeding recharge rates in several parts of state. This further got affected by recurring draughts in parts of Telengana and Rayalsema regions resulting into shift in the cropping pattern from food grins to less water intensive commercial crops. Changes in the area, production and productivity of

L

24 | P a g e

different food grains, non food grains and horticultural crops in the state since 1970 till 2010 have been given in table 3.1

Table 3.1 Percentage Area Irrigated under principal crops in Andhra Pradesh

Cropping Patterns Percentage of Gross Cropped Area

1970 1980 1990 2000 2004 2009-

10

Food crops 92.7 92 86.6 87.7 84.8 66.67

Rice 77.8 77.5 71.4 67.1 58.9 47.52

Maize 1.3 1.7 1.6 2.7 4.2 7.44

Sugarcane 3.2 4.0 4.1 6.4 7.1 4.88

Fruits and

Vegetables

6.2 7.0 9.8 0.35

Chilli 2.1 1.7 2.8 2.8 3.3

Tobacco 0.5 0.6 1.6 3.6 4.3 1.6

Cotton 0.7 0.7 0.9 0.6 0.6 11.7

groundnuts 10.4

Source: Agricultural Statistics at a Glance, Directorate and Economics and Statistics, A.P.

Over the years the state swiftly moved towards more non cereal crops. The table 3.1 shows that area under rice has decreased while that of maize, fruits and vegetables and sugarcane has increased. Among the food grains, the most phenomenal increase in production occurred in maize, with the production increasing more than 13 times. In this case also productivity growth of 452% was the chief contributing factor to growth in production. In the case of jowar, ragi and other millets, area decreased sharply by 72, 68 and 83% respectively. Despite high increase in productivity of jowar and ragi by 68% and 44% , the decline in their production levels was as high as 53 and 54 percent respectively. Among pulses, production of horsegram declined by 63% due to decline in area. At the turn of the century, blackgram, greengram and redgram have emerged as important among pulses. Blackgram achieved the highest production growth of 997%.But its productivity growth was only 163%. On the other hand the productivity of bengalgram increased by 189%.This high productivity growth of bengalgram facilitated the production increase of 322% despite a modest increase of 46%. Similarly, greengram also recorded an impressive growth of 209% in production mainly propelled by a productivity growth of 144% and by a modest increase of 27% in area. Redgram production also increased by 282% but it was mainly caused by the area growth of 179% and modest growth of 37% in yield. The total production of pulses increased by, 227%,

25 | P a g e

aided by a productivity increase of 152% and an area increase of 30%. Overall, there was reduction of area of 17% under food grain crops. The rise of oilseeds up to the mid-1990s has been steeper in Andhra Pradesh than in all-India, driven mainly by groundnut and later, by sunflower. The uptake of rapeseed, mustard, and soyabean has been minimal compared to the rest of the country. The decline of oilseeds since the mid-1990s has been observed in Andhra Pradesh, with groundnut showing the largest relative drop in share. Another notable feature is the rapid increase of cotton since the 1970s. Hybrid cotton was introduced into the state from Gujarat in the early 1970s, and has been rapidly adopted since. Today, Andhra Pradesh is also a center of the cotton seed industry, because the dry climate and abundance of agricultural labor make it an ideal production region. However, the emasculation and pollination of cotton flowers for F1 hybrid seed production is mainly carried out by children, so that the implications for human capital development in the production areas cannot be ignored.

3.2.1 Cropping Pattern in Coastal Andhra

Coastal Andhra can be classified as North and South, where North Coastal Andhra constitutes of Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam, and South Coastal Andhra comprises of East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur Prakasam and Nellore. Both in North and south coastal Andhra the general trend is for higher rates of growth of 'all crops' as compared to 'food grains' suggesting the better performance of non-food grains. In coastal Andhra rice is the principal crop and the area under rice increased by 41.6% since 1955. Rainfall pattern over last two decades shows that these regions receive relatively more rainfall and being served extensively by canal irrigation. However there are disparities across districts with regard to growth rate of food grains and non food grains. According to Parthasarathy the growth rate of foodgrain production in Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam and Nellore has been negative, though not significant. The region experienced rice production increase by threefold by the end of the century. Next to rice maize experienced phenomenal in area as well as productivity. Jowar lost its productivity also a result of which its production became negligible. Ragi also lost one half of its area. Despite a gain in productivity by 30%, its production suffered a decline by 35%. Other small millets also lost 80% of their area. All the pulses, with the exception of Horsegram, gained in area.

District level analysis has been done for the crop years from 1990-91 to 200-01. This is essentially because 1990s saw the emergence of atomistic irrigation of tube well resulting into change in the cropping pattern.

26 | P a g e

Table 3.2 Showing Percentage change in the area under Selected Crops across Districts in year 1991 to 2000

Districts/Regions Crops

Coastal Andhra Rice Millets groundnuts Other

oilseeds

cotton

Srikakulam -4.97 -4.09 -0.73 -2.78 -2.78

Visakhapatnam 1.54 -2.27 -3.95 2.47 3.97

Visakhapatnam 3.58 -5.63 -3.56 2.54 0.40

East Godavari 9.22 -2.10 -1.40 -10.50 1.01

West Godavari 13.91 -0.34 -1.17 -2.65 0.43

Krishna 7.71 -0.06 -4.35 -1.28 6.27

Guntur 3.17 0.22 1.66 -3.43 4.35

Prakasam -0.45 -10.80 -9.64 -2.29 2.63

Nellore -0.14 -4.06 -7.16 -0.66 0.56

Data Source::Statistical Abstracts, various Issues * Millets = Total cereals - Rice - Wheat - Maize.** Other oilseeds = Total oilseeds - groundnut

3.2.2 Cropping Pattern in Telangana

Telangana region comprising of ten districts show a general trend towards higher rates of growth of food-grains as compared to 'all crops' suggesting that non-food grains increased at a lesser rate. This region also recorded the highest percentage increase in area, production and productivity of rice when compared with other regions. The highest rank is obtained by Karimnagar followed by Nalgonda, Warangal, Nizamabad and Khammam. Four of the Telangana districts occupy the- top four positions.

27 | P a g e

Table 3.3 Showing Area under Selected Crops in Telangana

Districts/Regions Crops

Coastal Andhra Rice Millets groundnuts Other oilseeds cotton

Kurnool 2.06 -6.22 -9.87 -3.49 8.00

Anantapur 0.56 -3.12 6.24 0.48 -0.05

Cuddpah 0.95 -2.72 -25.43 13.45 4.90

Chittor -

2.21

-2.69 -4.90 -0.14 0.00

Rangareddy -

0.01

-4.69 -0.11 -4.58 3.58

Nizamabad 8.38 1.35 2.89 0.94 2.87

Data Source::Statistical Abstracts, various Issues

* Millets = Total cereals - Rice - Wheat - Maize.** Other oilseeds = Total oilseeds - groundnut

3.2.3 Cropping Pattern in Rayalseema

Rayalseema moved away from food grains. Rice area marginally went up by 5 percent and since the productivity went up by 110% , its production increased by 120%. Maize is the only crop that has gained area in this region. Jowar, bajra and ragi lost 70, 78 and 76 percent of their areas.Yield of bajra decreased marginally.Total area under cereals and millets decreased by one half. Although their productivity increases by 75%, production decrease by 13%. Groundnut is the most important crop of the region area wise , however the productivity only increases by 4 percent between 1970 and 2010.

Table 3.4 Showing the Area under Selected Crops in Rayalseema

Districts/Regions Crops

Coastal Andhra Rice Millets groundnuts Other

oilseeds

cotton

Medak 3.66 -3.42 0.21 1.06 4.03

Mehbhubnagar -1.68 -12.14 -8.39 -1.93 7.00

Nalgonda 11.71 -1.20 -9.35 -0.07 20.96

Warangal 5.39 -3.73 -5.11 0.20 11.70

28 | P a g e

Karimnagar 10.29 -0.88 -7.93 -0.41 13.97

Adilabad 2.96 -6.09 0.59 -1.01 -1.70

Data Source::Statistical Abstracts, various Issues

* Millets = Total cereals - Rice - Wheat - Maize.** Other oilseeds = Total oilseeds -

groundnut

3.3 Cropping Pattern of Food grains

Paddy dominates the cropping pattern of food grains, accounting for 60% of the total foodgrain area, and more than 80% of the total food-grain irrigated area in 2005 . However, area under paddy has decreased over time, by 0.67 Mha of the total and by 0.64 Mha of irrigated area since 1970 Although the total paddy area has decreased, the share of food grains has remained steady over time. This is primarily due to the declining area under coarse cereals. The area under coarse cereals has also declined by 64%, from 1.48 to 0.54 Mha between 1971 and 2005. Only the area under maize has increased over this period. The growth in maize area is only a recent phenomenon, and the total area under maize has more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, indicating increasing demand for livestock feed. As in the total area, paddy dominates the irrigated area under food grains. In fact, the share of irrigated area under paddy has increased slightly, from 88% in 1970 to 94% in 2000. Irrigated area under food-grain crops, except maize and pulses, has decreased over this time. Irrigated area under maize, although small in comparison to other crops, has an eightfold increase between 1970 and 2005. This trend is expected to increase with increasing feed demand, which primarily emanates from increasing consumption of poultry products.

3.4 Cropping Patterns of Non-Foodgrain Crops

Although the total area has not increased, major changes in cropping and irrigation patterns of non-food-grain crops have occurred since the 1990s. The areas under oilseeds, once dominated non-food-grain cropping patterns, but area under cotton has decreased. The area under fruits, vegetables and sugarcane has more than doubled and virtually replaced the area of production of other non-food-grain crops. The area under fruits and vegetable has increased in all but the deltaic region, and area under sugarcane has increased in all regions. Although the total crop area of non-food-grain crops shows no major change, the area under irrigation increased significantly between 1971 and 2000. Only one-quarter of area under non-food-grain crops was irrigated in 1971, and this has increased by 43% by 2000. Fruits/ vegetables and sugarcane contributed to a major part of additional irrigated area in non-food- grain crops, increasing by 171,000 and 175,800 ha, respectively, between 1971 and 2000.The decline in irrigated area under non-food-grain crops between 2000 and 2005, of about 320,000 ha, which is mainly due to slow recovery of irrigation in non-food-grain crops after the severe droughts between 2001 and 2003. In fact, total area under irrigated non-food-grain crops between 2000 and 2003 has declined by 458,000 ha. But with good rainfall,

29 | P a g e

the declining trend was reversed and the area under irrigated non-food-grain area recovered 138,000 ha during 2004-2005. If changing consumption patterns and increasing income are indicators of future direction, the trends of increasing irrigation patterns in non-food-grain crops will most probably expand in the future. Per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables is significantly higher in urban areas than in rural ones (21% and 52%, respectively); and it increases significantly with increasing income.

3.5 Crop Productivity

Growth of crop productivity varies between crops and also between regions. Paddy is the major crop in Andhra Pradesh, and almost the whole paddy area is irrigated. Paddy yields increased only marginally in the 1970s, and significantly (3.77% annually) in the 1980s. However, the growth in yield as a whole stagnated in the 1990s. This is primarily due to decreased yields in the coastal region, where canal irrigation dominates, and the stagnant yields in the Telangana region, where tank irrigation dominates. These two regions had 42% of the paddy area, contributing to 30% of the total paddy production in 2000. The paddy yields in the other three major paddy-producing regions, where groundwater irrigation dominates, have increased even in the 1990s.

The state is unique in having seven agro-climatic regions with varying rainfall pattern. As being mentioned agriculture in the state traditionally follows the rainfall pattern it is therefore imperative to understanding the trends so as to assess the crop diversification. Average annual rainfall in the state varies between 500 and 1,800mm. Generally speaking, the Coastal districts (Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, and Nellore) receive relatively more rainfall, whereas the inland districts of the Rayalaseema region (Kurnool, Anantapur, Cuddapah, and Chittoor) tend to get the lowest amounts of rain. The Telangana region is split between North and South, with the northern districts (Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar, and Adilabad) receiving slightly higher precipitation than the districts of Southern Telangana (Rangareddy, Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Medak, Mahbubnagar, and Nalgonda).

3.6 Summing Up

Discussion so far revealed that the state is moving towards diversified cropping pattern. The diversification is more towards non-food crops in the hard rock regions of Telengana suffering from high rainfall variability. Since the irrigation of the state is highly dependent on rainfall any change in the later will affect the agriculture in general. Literature on agriculture and climate change often suggests that diversification of crops have emerged as an adaptation strategy to such rainfall uncertainties particularly in the draught affected areas of the state. Thus an understanding of the climate change and irrigation is important to determine several adaptation strategies against climatic shocks.

30 | P a g e

References

Adusumilli Ravindra and S. Bhagya Laxmi(2011): “Potential of the system of rice intensification for systemic improvement in rice production and water use: the case of Andhra Pradesh”, India Paddy Water Environ, 9:89–97 Gulati A (2007) Re-energizing agriculture sector of Andhra Pradesh: from food security to income opportunities. International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi.

31 | P a g e

CHAPTER FOUR Climate Change and Irrigation: Resilience and Adaptation Strategies

4.1 Introduction:

limate variability has attracted much attention in recent decades, not only because of the globally unparalleled persistence of anomalously low rainfall, but also because of the low capacity of society and economical systems to cope with

climate change related risks (Tarhule and Lamb 2003; Mengistu 2011).The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) defines climate change as “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer.” The IPCC definition refers to changes in climate over time due to both natural variability as well as anthropogenic activities, as opposed to the use of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), where climate change refers to “a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability, observed over comparable time periods.” (IPCC 2007) However, be it due to natural variability or human activity, a pronounced change in the climate is observed all across the world, as evidenced by a number of recent studies. After the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) in 2007, which projected an alarming increase in global average temperature, being in the range 0.3-6.4 0C, at the end of the twenty-first century (IPCC 2007), researchers have divulged even more disconcerting information on greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The global carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in 2008 was 387 ppm and was the highest on record in human history (NOAA 2009; Adam 2008). The present GHG emissions are ‘far higher than even the worst case scenario’ envisaged by the AR4 (Irwin 2009; Eriyagama and Smakhtin 2010).

Such changes in climatic variables will have the direct impact on status of natural resources, ‘water’ being the most crucial one. Variations in water resources and the advent of drought or increased runoff will have significant implications for the water supply and for agriculture. Changes in water resources associated with climate change thus will have a long term implications for agricultural production in general and irrigation in particular (Mengu et al., 2011). Irrigation is by far the largest water use sector; today, where about 67% of the current global water withdrawal and 87% of the consumptive water use (withdrawal minus return flow) is for irrigation purposes (Shiklomanov 1997; Doll 2002). Irrigated agricultural land comprises less than one-fifth of the total cropped area but produces about two-fifths of the world’s food. It is generally expected that irrigated agriculture will have to be extended in the future in order to feed the world’s growing population. Climate change with expected long term

C

32 | P a g e

changes in rainfall patterns and shifting temperature zones are expected to have negative effects on irrigation (Charles and Rashid 2007). In fact, it is not yet known whether there will be enough water available for the necessary extension. Call for technological and scientific innovations to mitigate and adapt to climate change in order to fulfill one of the major Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 – to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger shows the seriousness of this issue.

Looking into the Indian context reveals that any global changes in climate will surely alter India’s local climate essentially of the fact that India has a special geographical feature of a subcontinent. Wide variability in physiological and hydro-geological conditions makes her vulnerable to all identified impacts of climate change including rise in temperature, changes in precipitation amount and pattern, increase in extreme climate events and rise in sea level. Considering, the fact that irrigation is one of the worst affected sectors, it is therefore critically important that the severity of the impact of climate change on irrigation, particularly the area irrigated and irrigation water requirements (IR – the amount of water that must be applied to the crop by irrigation in order to achieve optimal crop growth) are identified, quantified, so as to initiate suitable adaptation strategy.

With this contention the following chapter attempts to review the progress already made in this direction with reference to Andhra Pradesh. Through extensive literature reviews it tries to identify key adaptive strategies documented in the otherwise growing literature of climate change and irrigation in general.

4.2 Rainfall Variability and Irrigation Scenario of Andhra Pradesh

The literature on climate induced changes have talked about various factors like rainfall, temperature, duration of sunlight, CO2 concentrations, green house gas emissions etc affecting the water availability for irrigation. Many climate models predicted an increase of global average precipitation, coupled up with dramatic increase in inter-year variability. Annual average river runoff is projected to increase by 10-40% in high latitudes, but decrease by 10-30% in some dry regions at mid latitudes and in the dry tropics (Milly et al., 2005), many of the same areas that are already facing water shortages (CA 2007). Among several climatic variables, rainfall variability is perhaps the most important factors impacting surface and groundwater availability for irrigation (Doll 2002). In the words of Shah (2007) changes in rainfall quantities and intensity has foreseen to affect natural groundwater recharge and therefore the millions of smallholders depending on the groundwater economy of South Asia (Shah 2007; Faures et al. 2007).

It has been widely agreed that India is one of the most vulnerable countries in the South to climate change. According to Milly et al (2008), compared to 1900–1970, most of India is likely to experience 5–20% increase in annual runoff during 2041–60. All in all, India should expect to receive more of its water through rain than through snow; get used to snow-melt occurring faster and earlier; and cope with less soil moisture in summer and higher crop evapotranspiration (ET) demand as a consequence.

33 | P a g e

Throughout the sub-continent, it is expected that ‘very wet days’ are likely to contribute more and more to total precipitation, suggesting that more of India’s precipitation may be received in fewer than 100 h of thunderstorms—and half in less than 30 h—as has been the case during recent decades. This is likely to mean higher precipitation intensity and larger number of dry days in a year. Increased frequency of extremely wet rainy seasons (Gosain and Rao 2007) is also likely to mean increased run-off.

However due to varying physio-geomorphological characteristics different parts of the country will be affected at different degrees. According to IPCC Indo-Gangetic basin is likely to experience increased water availability from snow-melt up to around 2030 but face gradual reductions thereafter. Many parts of peninsular India, especially the Western Ghats, are likely to experience a 5–10% increase in total precipitation (IPCC 2001) however this increase is likely to be accompanied by greater temporal variability. Andhra Pradesh, falling under semi-arid region of Peninsular India thus will be affected differently from rest of India. Estimates made by the department of agriculture and groundwater shows that on an average one in five years the annual rainfall of the state is below 750mm. Figure 4.1, shows that the deviation of average annual rainfall has increased over the years where the crop years of 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98, and 1999-2000 received the lowest rainfall or highest deviation during the decade. Considering the fact that irrigation of the state is essentially rainfall driven understanding its impact of on irrigation is very crucial more so because the state is recently undergoing dramatic shift from surface to ground water irrigation. It is expected that such a shift will invariably cause stress in the ground water aquifer impacting the supply in direct and myriad ways (Kumar et al. 2011; Shah 2009).

Figure 4.1 Showing Average Annual Rainfall in the State of Andhra Pradesh

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1990

-91

1991

-92

1992

-93

1993

-94

1994

-95

1995

-96

1996

-97

1997

-98

1998

-99

1999

-00

2007

-08

2008

-09

2009

-10

rain

fall

in m

m

years

Year Wise rainfall in Andhra Pradesh

Rainfall (mm)

34 | P a g e

Source: Statistical Abstract various sources

Fluctuations in annual rainfall is more evident in district wise disaggregate data, particularly for the semi arid areas of Rayalseema and Telangana. Both aggregate and district wise data identifies recurring droughts in the state resulting into crop failures, drinking water shortages, falling groundwater levels, and increased risk of contamination of surface water (Amarasinghe et al., 2007). Such incidence of draught has the direct impact of surface water storage, particularly canal network and age old tank system of the state. Climatic uncertainties necessitate multi-year reservoir storage capacity, which the state is not well equipped. The situation became more apparent in drought affected districts of Telengana and Rayalseema, which remained outside the ambits of large scale canal irrigation schemes of the state (Pingle 2011; Kumar et al., 2011). Contrary, groundwater is more resilience to dry spells and droughts. Groundwater aquifer has the advantage of minimum non-beneficial evaporation; for a mostly semi-arid country, where surface reservoirs can lose 3 m or more of their storage every year simply through pan-evaporation. It also has the advantage that storage can be near or directly under the point of use and is immediately available, through pumping, on demand. The tubewell revolution that has swept in Telangana and Rayalseema regions capitalizes on these advantages. The small farmers of these regions with a purpose of intensifying and diversifying their irrigational need restored to private tubewells. Such scavenging made groundwater resources at once critical and threaten (Rao and Swamy 2009; Shah 2009; Reddy and Reddy 2010 Kumar et al., 2011).

Recent estimates show that 9% of the blocks in the state are over-exploited. Six percent are in ‘critical stage’ with the average annual abstraction in the range of 90-100% of the average annual recharge. Nearly 15% of the blocks are in ‘semi critical’ category. Hence, as per the estimates, nearly 30% of the assessment blocks are facing overdevelopment problems. Kumar and Singh noted that, a significant percentage of open wells (17.3%) in AP had failed by 2000-01 (Kumar and Singh 2008). The magnitude of the problems of over-exploitation is also glaring from the fact that the net area irrigated by open wells has been drastically and consistently declining in the state from 1.03 m. ha to 0.616 m. ha from 1998-99 to 2005—06, the year for which data are available (Amarasinghe et al., 2007). With the open wells fast drying up, the farmers resorted to drilling deep bore wells. Thus there was a consequent increase in well irrigated area in the state. As pointed out by Shah with increase use of diesel or electricity pumps in extracting groundwater resulted into massive carbon footprints (Shah 2009).

Thus there emerged a vicious cycle of climate change-ground water usage, where the former acts as a force multiplier threatening the water resource status of the state. In other words, demand for ground water increases due to rainfall variability which in absence of proper management gets further aggravated in the wake of climate change. Depleting groundwater not only has an environmental consequence but also a socio-economic one, particularly that of access and equity. The small and marginal farmers bear much higher cost of resource depletion both in direct and indirect terms. They have to incur as much cost for drilling wells to access groundwater as the large farmers, but the area brought under irrigation remains much smaller. A study carried out in three villages of AP showed that the cost per acre of irrigation was much higher for small and marginal farmers, as compared to large farmers. The differences widened with increase

35 | P a g e

in magnitude of water scarcity. Further, both direct and indirect cost of groundwater degradation (due to well failure, and decline in crop yield, respectively) was estimated to be very high in the water scarce village, with much higher cost being borne by the small and marginal farmers, as compared to large farmers ( Reddy 2003; Kumar et al., 2011).

Climate variabilities not only affect irrigation but also gets affected by it.Like transformation of Andhra Pradesh’s irrigation from gravity-flow to lift has made it highly energy-intensive. This is more so with the rampent use of electric pumpsets in the hard rock regions. Apart from higher carbon emission in these electric pumps there is larger transmission and distribution losses. This is evident from the data provided by Murthy and Raju (2009) for three districts of Andhra Pradesh. Their comparison of energy requirement for groundwater pumping for irrigation and the actual energy consumed shows huge wastage of electricity used up in agricultural pumping. There are several reasons being cited by the researchers, like the zero marginal cost of electricity, night power supply, transmission and distribution lossess etc. Literature on groundwater shows that 96% of India’s electricity use in groundwater pumping is mostly concentrated in the peninsular India. Even amongst these, the biggest carbon culprits are states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat which have large areas under deep tubewell irrigation.

Using data for Haryana and Andhra Pradesh, Shukla et al., (2003) built a quantitative model to estimate the marginal impacts of a host of factors on GHG emissions from pumping. Some of the conclusions of the study were: (a) every meter decline in pumping water levels increases GHG emissions by 4.37% in Haryana and 6% in Andhra Pradesh; (b) the elasticity of GHG emissions w.r.t percent of area underground irrigation (that is, the per cent increase in GHG induced by a 1% increase in groundwater irrigated area) is 2.2; and through the 1990s, groundwater irrigated area in these two states increased at a compound annual growth rate of 3% year−1, resul ng in an increase in GHG emission at 6.6% year−1; (c) every 1% increase in the share of diesel pumps to total pumps reduces GHG emissions by 0.3%; (d) the elasticity of GHG emissions w.r.t irrigation efficiency is high at 2.1. The most important determinant of the carbon footprint of India’s pump irrigation economy is the dynamic head over which farmers lift water to irrigate crops. The larger the head, the higher the energy consumption and the more likely that electrified deep tubewells are used for pumping groundwater, multiplying the carbon footprint of groundwater pumping.

4.3 Resilience and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change

Literature on climate change essentially talks about three principle strategies, namely, resilience, adaptation and mitigation. Resilience to climate change refers to self capability of responding to changing influences and of implementing adaptations and innovations as circumstances change. Research findings showed that there are a number of actions that individual farmer implements, some of which are specific to particular enterprises or land types and others have a more general application. Farmers manage risks, including those related to climate, regularly as part of their everyday lives.

36 | P a g e

To make sound decisions that minimize climate risks, such as adjusting time of planting to coincide with the onset of rains. Through ages farmers have develop resilience to climate change like migration, diversifying the livelihood or changing the agricultural pattern (Majule and Mwalyosi 2005; Ngigi 2006). “Adaptation” to climate change involves the action that people take in response to, or in anticipation of, projected or actual changes policy based responses, technological responses or managerial responses. Adaptation is to reduce adverse impacts or take advantage of the opportunities posed by climate change (Parry et al. 2005). Adaptation is improved society’s ability to cope with changes in climatic conditions across time scales, from short term (e.g. seasonal to annual) to the long term (e.g. decades to centuries) [2]. The IPCC defines adaptive capacity as the ability of a system to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes), to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences. The goal of an adaptation measure is to increase the capacity of a system to survive external shocks or change. In general, the preferred adaptation strategies are actions with multiple economic and environmental benefits for current and future conditions and needs, based on sound scientific assessment. Mitigation is defined as an anthropogenic intervention to reduce the sources of greenhouse gases or enhance their sinks (Zhouchun 2009).

The current debate on climate change, its impacts on socio-ecological systems and agriculture in particular has shifted from mitigating the effects of increasing climatic variability to adapting to the expected adverse impacts. Adaptation occurs at households, community, regional, national and international (Paavola and Adger 2005). National level adaptation strategy encompasses formulation of climate change policies, institutions, technologies and innovations. Community level adaptation strategies includes formation of community based organizations, provision of knowledge, technology, policy, institutional and financial support (e.g. credit facilities) for the vulnerable communities etc. Smit and Skinner (2002) argued that at community level efforts should be made to build adaptive capacity, which creates the ability of a system to cope with climate-related risks and allows for local assessment and more tailored responses. Capacity building must be an integral component of any climate change adaptation strategy due to existing uncertainty within the climate models, particularly at local and national levels. The capacity of smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change is perhaps the most vital area for development. Burton and Van Aalst (2004) argued that, with the exception of capacity building, projects should not be undertaken solely for the purpose of adapting to climate change.

Huq et al. (2003) advanced what is known as the ‘no regrets’ adaptation strategy: adaptations that “…contribute to equitable and sustainable policies and to the current development decision framework by reducing present-day risk from climate variability and by being relevant to immediate national development priorities.” Using the case of Mali, Huq et al. (2003) emphasized the importance of incorporating data and information management in an adaptation strategy; “after the drought during the 1970s, a working group was created to disseminate a bulletin with up-to-date information on meteorological conditions, rainfall, water table levels and agricultural impacts.” Additional agro-climatic information included forecast tables, planting tips

37 | P a g e

(particularly tied to current climatic conditions) and hydrology reports (Konate and Sokona 2003).

The UNDP climate adaptation program has a fairly well-defined framework that guides both implementation and evaluation of the adaptation programs with respect to climate change. The UNDP Adaptation Policy Framework for Climate Change is based on no-regret options – measures or activities useful even without climate change (UNDP 2003). Low-regret options, on the other hand, require additional outlays to combat negative climate effects. Climate change adaptation strategy is best supported by a set of regulatory and economic instruments designed collectively by stakeholders, without which, it will remain at the level of education and awareness creation (UNDP 2003).

All these follows the recognition that the climate is already changing as a result of mankind’s activities and there is little that can be done to prevent further increases in any climatic shocks in the short term (Henson 2006; Schellnhuber et al., 2006; Stern 2007). Any such change of climate at the global scale would impact the local agriculture. By modifying the precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and soil moisture storage climate change would significantly affect the supply and demand of water for irrigation, which in turn will alter the crop productivity, irrigation efficiency etc (Rounsevell et al. 1999 in the IPCC 2001; Ullah et al. 2001). In addition, warming-induced, stronger evaporation will result in a falling water table, increasing the energy needed to pump water and making irrigation more expensive under drought conditions. Thus, it is increasingly important to understand the impact of climate variability and extreme events on agricultural water use. The literature on climate change and agriculture documented several adaptation strategies at national and regional level. It is also well known that water limitation tends to enhance the positive crop response to elevated CO2, compared to well water conditions (Chaudhuri et al. 1990; Kimball et al. 1995). Because of recent climatic variations, the arid zone of the country is facing severe scarcity of water, which has tremendously affected human life, ecology and economic activities. Thus understanding the possible impacts of climate change are of utmost importance from the national and regional point of view (Quadir et al. 2004).

The following is a typical package for a national climate change adaptation strategy:

• “Technological innovations: improved crop varieties, early warning systems, land and water management, integrated pest management, etc.

• Government subsidies: agricultural subsidy among other farmers’ support services to cushion famers against the impacts of climate variability

• Farm production practices: farm production, land use, land topography, irrigation, and timing of operations

• Farm financial management: crop insurance (in case of crop failure related to variations in weather conditions), crop shares and futures, income stabilization programs, and household income (diversification schemes)”

However literature on irrigation and climate change points out that any improvement in agriculture or irrigation in particular lies in improvement of the irrigational efficiency/productivity, rather than in physical expansion. ‘Irrigation efficiency’ can be defined as the ratio between water delivered and water consumed by crops within an

38 | P a g e

irrigation system. Irrigation efficiency essentially are of three types, namely, efficiency in water storage, distribution and use/per crop. Efficiency in water storage refers to the percentage ratio of the amount of water stored in effective root zone soil to the amount of water needed to make up the soil water depleted in crop root zone prior to irrigation. Efficiency in distribution refers to extent the water is uniformly distributed and stored in the effective root zone soil along the irrigation run. While the crop water efficiency may be defined as the ratio of the amount of water consumptively used by the crop. Storage, distribution and use of irrigated water are critical in water scarce regions of semi arid tropics. Thus climate change raises new questions about continued reliance on each of these variables so as to ensure continue irrigation facilities (Ellis 2000; Paavola 2004).

Effective adaptation strategy to climate change thus involves managing the supply and demand of water resources so as to enhance storage, distribution and crop water use efficiency in irrigation. The idea is that water from different sources (rainwater, surface, and groundwater) can be used for crop and livestock production (including aquaculture). The supply side management includes augmentation of the surface and subsurface aquifer essentially through soil and water conservation, run off harvesting, and supplementary irrigation. Water harvesting refers to collection of runoff for its productive use (Siegert 1994). More specifically, in crop production, water harvesting is essentially a spatial intervention designed to change the location, where water is applied to augment evapotranspiration that occurs naturally. It is relevant to areas where the rainfall is reasonably distributed in time, but inadequate to balance potential evapotranspiration (ET) of crops. More precisely, water harvesting can be defined as the process of concentrating rainfall as runoff from a larger catchment area to be used in a smaller target area. This process may occur naturally or artificially. The collected runoff water is either directly applied to an adjacent agricultural field (or plot) or stored in some type of (on-farm) storage facility for domestic use and as supplemental irrigation of crops. It is practiced in areas with greatest climatic risk to sustained agricultural production essentially sufering from high degree of rainfall variability.

Supplementary irrigation refers to a temporal intervention, designed to influence when water is made available to augment natural evapotranspiration. This system is highly recommended when inter seasonal rainfall distribution, or variability, or both are such that crop water requirements cannot be met. They includes storage and ground water recharge. Storage facilities range from an on-farm pond or tank ,well to a small dam constructed across the flow. Water harvesting and supplementary irrigation are crucial multipronged approach to adapting irrigation to climate change. It involves full continuum of physical water storage in form of canals, dams, ponds etc through rainwater harvesting, ground water recharge, soil moisture conservation and storm water reclamation. The basic adaptation approach here is physical water storage and transfers the excess water from the wet zone to the dry zone (De Silva 2006).

The demand side management on the other hand involves improved water management technologies/practices and large scale farmer participation in adoption, implementation, operation and maintenance of the different irrigation initiatives (Peiris et al. 2006; Aheeyar et al. 2005). Several water saving irrigation technologies are being practiced worldwide, namely,1) micro-irrigation (drip and sprinklers) 2); broad beds or small border irrigation; 3) improved furrow irrigation (surge, cutback, proper

39 | P a g e

management) 4) laser leveling of fields; 5) plastic mulches and tunnels; 6) improved soil moisture retention sub-surface barriers; 7) alternative wetting and drying for rice; 8) system of rice intensification; 9) direct seeding of rice; 10) aerobic rice; 11) multicropping systems; 12) irrigation planning, (Wijeratne 1996; Chandrika et al. 2004; Nanthakumaran 2004); 13) proper shade management humidity and moisture stress on crops (Inpadevy and Mahendran 2003; Weerasinghe et al. 2001, Peiris et al. 1993); 14)organic farming; 15) burying coconut husks and contour drains to minimize the effects of reduced rainfall; 16) irrigation scheduling/planning. Considering the ever increasing demand for water in irrigation, effective demand management particularly in water scarce and water stressed regions would be central to reduce the aggregate demand for water to match the available future supplies. The success of water management interventions depends on how well they are integrated into the entire farming system and value chain – from inputs, production and processing to storage and marketing. On-farm water management interventions incorporate a number storage and marketing options. Based on the literature review on climate change following section provides some of the adaptation strategies applied in several semi arid tracts of the world with special reference to A.P.

4.3.1 Paradigm shift in Adaptation to Climatic Shocks: Moving from Surface to Managed Aquifer Recharge Strategy

There are many river basins in Andhra Pradesh. The most important of them are Godavari, Krishna and Pennar. Of the total geographical area, nearly 27% is in Krishna, 17.5% is in Pennar. Another 27% of the area is in Godavari basin. The rest of the area is in many of the east flowing rivers between Mahanadi to Godavari, Godavari to Krishna and Krishna to Pennar. Analysis of basin-wise runoff generation and runoff utilization shows that surface water utilization is highly skewed in the State. Godavari is a water-abundant river basin with annual surface runoff (dependable) of 41.9 BCM, of which only 40% of the total surface water utilized. Therefore, the basin is still “open”. So are the many small river basins between Mahanadi and Pennar. Here the degree of utilization is only 35%. As against these, the two river basins, viz., Krishna and Pennar are surface water-scarce and have already experienced high degree of water utilization with large number of reservoir and diversion schemes. The reservoir schemes include both small reservoirs like tanks and ponds and large modern reservoirs.

In AP, the problems of groundwater depletion are mostly encountered in the regions which are falling under the basins of Krishna and Pennar. This however does not mean that the entire area of AP inside these two basins is experiencing the problems. In fact, coastal areas including alluvial areas of Krishna delta, which receives water from Nagarjuna Sagar scheme, Sriram Sagar and the delta irrigation systems, are showing positive balance in groundwater, with the recharge exceeding the annual abstraction. The problems of depletion are concentrated in the areas that are not benefited by surface irrigation (Kumar et al., 2010). These areas are already facing problem of acute shortage of surface waterthe regions which desperately require augmentation of groundwater are falling in “closed basins”, having no surplus runoff for recharge. Using the runoff from local catchments for recharge would mean causing negative effects for the d/s storage and diversions schemes in these basins. Already intensive water

40 | P a g e

harvesting activities have caused significant negative impacts on inflows into tanks which are used for irrigation and domestic purposes in the Deccan plateau.

Several studies have pointed out that irrigation storage and distribution efficiency of canal network systems has declined over the years essentially due to excessive seepage and deep percolation losses from the fields, inadequate or no supply of water at the tail ends, drainage and water logging, main systems deficiencies, improper or mismatched cropping pattern and calendar, excessive water application and lavish use of water and inadequate maintenance and poor revenues and returns. In spite of several central and state sponsored surface irrigation initiatives in major, medium and minor canals the present irrigation efficiency of the country is about 35-40 percent, which is well below the internationally accepted standards of 57 percent. An evaluation study undertaken by the Command Area Development Programme (1994) in Nagarjuna Sagar Project of Andhra Pradesh reveals that by 1992-93 the average water use efficiency under irrigation was 218kg/1000m3 and 192kg/1000m3 in left and right bank respectively. The study undertaken by Nandipineni about water use efficiency in the lift irrigation schemes by the A.P State Irrigation Development Corporation Limited shows that there has been under development of the command area essentially because of siltation of the storage structure, underutilization of the pumping capacity and improper irrigation scheduling. Shah(2007) points out that over the years the irrigation efficiency in the surface water storages—large and small has declined and this became more evident with increase mean temperatures and decrease rainfall pattern. Irrigating the same area through canals will necessitate larger reservoir storage; more frequent droughts will also mean greater need for multi-year reservoir storage capacity.

However, compared to the surface storage, aquifers respond to droughts and climate fluctuations much more slowly; as a result, it act as a more resilient buffer during dry spells. Worldwide, the need for enhancing recharge to groundwater started being felt on a large scale in the early twentieth century (Todd 2004), and especially in the US, various experiments have been carried out continuously for many decades. These experiments have established different ways of doing recharge – basin-spreading, stream channeling, well recharging, etc. Todd reports some of these recharge rates that generally hover around a few thousand cubic meters per day but with high variation from 200 m3/day to 50,000 m3/day. This is the reason why hard rock region of Telengana has experienced explosive growth in groundwater demand during recent decades. This is evident in the fact that well digging has tended to peak during years of droughts in the regions of Telengana and Rayalseema and expected to heighten with hydro-climatic variability. All in all, while it can be predicted with confidence that climate change will enhance the demand for groundwater in agricultural and other uses, there is no clarity on whether climate change will enhance or reduce natural groundwater recharge in net terms under the business as usual scenario. These resulted in growing significance of groundwater recharge as an important adaptive strategy. The significance of such approach lies in the fact that it catalyzes farmer’s investment in demand because it enables the minimum reduction in demand to reach a groundwater balance (Chartres 2007). Coming up of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) as a significant adaptive strategy in the recent literature of climate change and irrigation points out to such paradigm shift. Managed aquifer recharge was seen as a resolution to this dilemma and resulted in the proliferation of check dams and other recharge

41 | P a g e

structures constructed to capture monsoon rainfall in the depleted basement aquifers that have low porosity and storage. It attempts to incorporate effective means to manage agricultural water demand as well enhance natural ground water recharge. In fact where ground water irrigation increases the value of agricultural production by a factor of 5 to 50 times over that of non –irrigated land, managed aquifer recharge does give opportunities for support of investments to conserve, sustain and enhance the ground water resources while increasing farmers income. Its application opens the way for more sustainable and economic use of ground water storage and uses. Literature on MAR is fast growing particularly with reference to climate change. Aquifer can be managed by both supply demand driven approach.

Adaptation to climate change in irrigated agriculture is thus a long-term process that necessitates long-term interventions at local, national and regional levels. A review of some of the current practices to mitigate the impacts of climate change provides insight into the available options that can be considered for adoption, replication and up-scaling by farmers. This sub-section provides a detail account of water harvesting and supplementary irrigation strategies adopted under managed aquifer recharge framework in different semi arid tracts of the world. General understanding of the such adaptation strategies will help in craving out appropriate measures pertaining to dryland areas of the A.P.

4.3.1.1 Forms of water Harvesting

a) Runoff Farming Water Harvesting

When the collected runoff water is diverted directly into the cropped area during the rainfall event, the technique is called runoff farming water harvesting (RFWH). Generally, the quantity of runoff exceeds the infiltration capacity of the soil. Therefore, ridges, borders, or dikes are placed around the cropped area to retain the water on the soil surface. Overflow from fields may be conveyed by channels for use on other lower fields. The following are the characteristics of RFWH:

1. The absence of surface storage; the soil profile serves as water reservoir the collected

runoff water is directly applied to the cropped area

3. The cultural practices (seedbed preparation, plant rows spacing and population, field layout, etc.) are in accordance with the catchment characteristics (size, slope, etc.) and the expected timing of runoff eventA further differentiation is based on the size of the water harvesting system.

Size governs the type of crops that can be grown. Micro-catchment runoff farming systems are primarily used for trees and are characterized by a relatively small runoff producing catchment. Mini-catchment runoff farming systems are primarily used for row crops or strips of annual crops, and the runoff producing catchment is a long strip. In both systems, water from the catchment area runs directly into the cropped area. The catchment usually receives an appropriate treatment regarding shape, configuration, surface condition, and runoff inducement practices.

42 | P a g e

Macro-catchment runoff farming refers to large-scale rainwater harvesting. This may be the diversion of a natural wadi, a stream in a gully, or a wadi flowing from a natural catchment (usually untreated). The collected flow is immediately diverted by a diversion structure to flood irrigate an adjacent agricultural field (Kolarkar, Murthy, and Singh 1980; Carter and Miller 1991). This method is suitable for all kinds of crops (trees, row crops, and closely growing crops). The catchment should be big enough to provide the needed irrigation water. The diversion structure may consist of a stone barrier across the wadi or the intermittent stream. When the rain water flows into the wadi, it will be slowed down and diverted from its course in the stream channel to flow over the rather broad flat floodplain bordering the wadi. Strategic placement of rock barriers and crops will allow the maximum use to be made of the floodwaters with the minimum damage to land and crops. Careful design and layout are necessary to withstand floods and prevent erosion. Most of the published research work on modeling and design of RFWH systems is on the micro-catchment scale (Boers et al. 1986a; Oron and Enthoven 1987). However, these models can also be applied to the mini-catchment RFWH systems and may be adjusted and extended to the macro-catchment RFWH systems. Studies on such adaptation strategy has been undertaken in several semi arid tracts of Srilanka. If properly adopted and applied, this can formed an important adaptation strategy for climate change variability in the semi arid tracts of A.P.

4.3.1.2 Forms of Supplementary Irrigation

a) Revitalizing Tank Irrigation: Conjunctive Use of Surface and Sub-Surface Water

Farmers in the peninsular India for centuries have practiced rainwater harvested tanks of 20 to 1000 hectares as an adaptation support to face the major shock of seasonal water scarcity and lengthy dry spells. Such tanks have captured more water and provided more local control compared to a few large reservoirs. Common ownership of these tanks has facilitated unique arrangements of joint adaptation under high water scarcity conditions. In many instances farmers used to forego their personal interest in the water scarce season and let community to decide over the cropping pattern and share of water across users. Such kind of unique joint adaptation helped the farmers to buffer random shocks to certain extent. In addition, farmers seem to fine-tune their cultivation practices even within the season, depending on the water availability. Researchers have made observations that every season farmers adjust their farming activities, responding to the intra-seasonal variability of the climate to a certain extent (Tennakoon 1986)

However, albeit its immense significance literature time again talked about the “declining” nature of tanks as sources of gravity flow irrigation. The decline in tank irrigation is on two parameters—“relatively” when compared to other sources of irrigation and “absolutely” in terms of gross area irrigated. The share of tank irrigation has declined from 16.51 percent in 1952-53 to 5.18 percent in -1999-2000. Various reasons have been advanced for the decline in the area under tank irrigation. Shankari (1991) points out that poor management of the tanks is primarily responsible for their decline. This is evident in the non-participation of farmers in cleaning channels, encroachment of the tank bed, inadequate repairs, weed infestation and siltation.

43 | P a g e

Having surveyed 32 tanks in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Von Oppen and Subba Rao (1980) indicate that increases in population density resulted in deforestation in catchment areas leading to soil erosion and siltation. According, to Sekar and Palanisami (2000), tank bed cultivation and lack of repair and maintenance, contributed to its decline.

Considering the fact that impact of climate change will be more in the rainfed areas where the tanks are often the major source of water storage and ground water recharge, there is considerable interest in revitalizing such reservoirs as an instrument of adaptation against climate shocks (Senaratne and Wickramasinghe; Palanisami et. al 2010). Several studies conducted in this direction pointed out conjunctive use of surface and subsurface water as an important MAR strategy (Palinisami et al 2010; Sharma 2003). This involves conversion of Tank into percolation ponds by deepening the storage area and encouraging farmers to invest in private wells in command area. The economic returns for such conversion being carried out by Palaniswami and Amarasinghe (2008) in tank command area of Tamil Nadu concluded higher net returns for percolation tank in comparison to only tanks or wells.

b) Managed Aquifer Recharge through Agro Well Irrigation

Compared with the historical village tanks, extraction of groundwater through agro-well is a recently adopted private adaptation measure that became popular during the last two or three decades. It has largely been facilitated by the introduction of small, low-cost pumps operated by diesel and kerosene (Kikuchi et al. 2003; Karunaratne and Pathmarajh 2002; Panabokke and Perera 2005). These are large diameter wells (agro-wells) to tap groundwater and have been identified as a potential solution to enhance storage in shallow hard rock aquifers. Agro-wells were constructed in low lying areas, either near small tanks or small streams and generally used to cultivate seasonal crops. This form of MAR is emerging as an important strategy, where mixed cropping is integrated with animal husbandry or social forestry. A study conducted by Perera ( )in the dry zones of Sri Lanka points out the successful usage of such agro based wells in meeting the water scarcity and livelihood generation with increase droughts and temperature in those areas.

The major contribution of agro-wells is supplementing of water for cash crops during the dry season, thereby helping to increase farmer income (Nagarajah and Gamage 1998; Karunaratne and Padmarajah 2002). Extraction of groundwater through privately owned agro-wells is determined mainly by commercial objectives. Compared with water from direct rainfall or community-managed tanks, this is the most expensive option for the supply of water, and the cost is borne privately by individual farmers. The agro-well option requires substantial capital expenditure for the construction of the wells and regular operational costs for the fuel needed to pump the water. As a result, unlike the relatively low cost supply of water more or less uniformly available to all farmers from direct rainfall or commonly managed tanks, agro-wells are an option available only to farmers who can afford it. Therefore, water extracted from agro-wells is utilized only for

44 | P a g e

high-value cash crops (such as chilli and onion) and the level of extraction is largely determined by the price of fuel.

c) Managed Aquifer Recharge through Dug Well Irrigation

Artificial recharging through dug wells is one of the initiatives undertaken by Central Government in hard rock districts of the country facing high stage of ground water exploitation and climatic variability. Dug-well recharge can be the backbone of a mass scientific experimentation involving millions of farmers and giving an opportunity to test many of the new ICT innovations. The Tamil Nadu recharge program is attempting a bit in this direction by maintaining electronic records and hoping to get constant feedback from farmers. There are several innovative ways by farmers are recharging their dug wells. Study undertaken by Krishnan (2009) in 112 districts spread across 11 states in India documented several innovative strategies adopted by farmers in recharging their dug wells. The study mentioned about farmers in Gujarat practicing recharging of dug wells using canal water. On average, farmers reported that they could spend up to Rs 5,000 towards pipes and other material, if there was a scheme at recharging their wells through canal water. Similar mechanism of water distribution being followed currently in the Sardar-Sarovar command area of Gujarat where farmers have been spending as much as Rs 1,000-5,000 per ha towards pipes and pumps for accessing water from the branch and minor canals. This means that either they use a field channel or more surely, make arrangement for underground boring to transmit water to their field.

d) Supplementary Irrigation through Storm Water /Waste Water

Storm water and/or treated sewage which may be recycled, either directly or via aquifer emerged as a new concept in managed aquifer recharge, particularly in urban fringe. In absence of a suitable network of sewers results in pollution of the urban environment, affecting poor people who rely on waste water for peri-urban irrigation. In these areas, if the urban water supply is secure, then the effects of climate change can be buffered by these alternative sources. Depleted aquifers may provide the most efficient storage for recycled water in places where evaporation rates are high (Raschid-Sally et al. 2006).Using such wastewater in urban and peri-urban agriculture may support the livelihoods of the urban poor and irrigation effeciency. A study conducted by (Udagedara and Najim 2000) shows that if the wastewater generated in cities, especially the grey-water from domestic water use, can be collected and diverted for agricultural production, areas that are uncultivated due to water shortage can be brought under cultivation. The authorities must, however, ensure that the grey-water that is diverted for agricultural production is not contaminated with black-water and hazardous industrial wastewater in order to minimize the adverse health risks that could affect farmers using wastewater agriculture and consumers using the products of wastewater agriculture.

4.3.1.3 Importance of Demand Driven Approach to Enhance Irrigation Efficiency in the Realm of Climate Change

Demand management becomes the key to the overall strategy for managing scarce water resources (Molden et al. 2001). Since irrigated agriculture is the major

45 | P a g e

competitive user of diverted water (GoI 1999), demand management in irrigation in water-scarce and water-stressed regions would be central to face climate change variability (Kumar 2003).Improving water productivity in irrigation is important in the overall framework for managing agricultural water demand, thereby increasing the ability of agencies and other interested parties to transfer the water thus “saved” to economically more efficient or other high priority domestic and industrial use sectors (Barker et al. 2003; Kijne et al. 2003).

There are two major ways of improving the physical productivity of water used in irrigated agriculture. First: the water consumption or depletion for producing a certain quantum of biomass for the same amount of land is reduced. Second: the yield generated for a particular crop is enhanced without changing the amount of water consumed or depleted per unit of land. Often these two improvements can happen together with an intervention either on the agronomic side or on the water control side ( Kumar et al. 2007). Efficient irrigation technologies help establish greater control over water delivery (water control) to the crop roots, reduce non-beneficial evaporation and non-recoverable percolation from the field, and return flows into “sinks” and often increases beneficial evapotranspiration. The list of innovative technologies have already mentioned in the earlier discussion, however, the following section gives a detail account of some of the widely practiced demand management strategies to enhance irrigation efficiency and face climatic shocks in the hard rock regions of the India. Here particular reference being made of Andhra Pradesh.

a) Micro Irrigation: Drip and Sprinkler

The micro irrigation technologies such as drip and sprinkler forms the key water saving devices for enhancing the crop water use, particularly in the hard rock regions of peninsular India. It is believed that the drip irrigation systems would become best bet technologies when they are adopted in areas with semi arid and arid climate with deep water table conditions, for row crops, and under well or lift irrigation (Wu et al. 2010). Further, it is also considered that the water saving benefit of drip irrigation will be significant under semi arid and arid climates when used for row crops, and in areas with deep unsaturated zones. Evidence showed that upto 40 percent to 80 percent of water can be saved and water use efficiency can be enhanced up to 100 percent in a properly designed and managed drip irrigation systems compared with the conventional ones (Sivanappan 1994; Kumar 2008; Palanisami et al 2011). The technical feasibility and economic viability of drip irrigation would be higher for well-irrigated crops, with independent pressurizing devices; and also their economic viability better for distantly spaced crops, for which the capital cost of the system would be less.

The recent data released by the Task Force on Micro Irrigation in India shows that during the past four years, peninsular India had recorded highest growth in adoption of drip systems. Maharashtra ranks first, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The potential area under crops that are conducive to water saving MI technologies, wherein the intended benefits could be derived, in the state was estimated to be only 5.57lac ha (Kumar et al., 2008; Kumar, 2009). A study conducted by Raman showed that the drip irrigation has a potential of bringing 12.25 percent of the land under irrigation of which Andhra Pradesh constitute about 49.74 percent Sprinkler on the other has 7.99 percent

46 | P a g e

under irrigation of which 51.93 percent is concentrated in Andhra Pradesh. Table 4.1 presents the data of adoption of drip irrigation systems under various programmes, viz., macro management plan; technology mission on horticulture; cotton development programme and oil palm development programme. The major crops for which drip systems are currently adopted are: cotton, sugarcane; banana, orange, grapes, pomegranate, lemon, citrus, mangoes, flowers, and coconut.

Table 4.1 Showing Different Water Saving Technologies

Sl. No

Name of water-saving and yield enhancing micro irrigation technology

Names of crops for which the

technology can be used ideally

Nature of Saving in

Applied Water

Pressurized drip systems

(inline and on-line drippers,

drip tape)

All fruit crops; cotton; castor;

fennel; maize; coconut;

arecanut; chilly; cauliflower;

cabbage; ladies finger; tomatoes;

egg plant; gourds;

mulberry; sugarcane; water

melon1 ; flowers

Reduces non-beneficial

evaporation (E) from the area

not covered by canopy

2. Reduces deep percolation

3. Water saving also comes from

reduction in evaporation from

fallow after harvest

4. Extent of water saving higher

during initial stages of plant

growth

5. Significant yield and quality

improvement.

47 | P a g e

Sl.

No

Name of water-saving and yield enhancing

micro irrigation technology

Names of crops for

which the

technology can be

used ideally

Nature of Saving in

Applied Water

Overhead (movable) sprinklers

(including rain guns)

Wheat; pearl millet; sorghum;

cumin; mustard; cow pea; chick

pea, grasslands and pastures, tea

estates

Reduces conveyance losses

2. Improves distribution efficiency

slightly

3. Reduces deep percolation

4. Marginal yield growth

Micro sprinklers Potato; ground nut; alfalfa; garlic

and onion, herbs and

ornamentals

Reduces seepage and evaporation

losses in conveyance

2. Reduces deep percolation

over furrow irrigation and

small border irrigation

3. Yield growth and quality improvement

significant

Plastic mulching Potato; ground nut; cotton; castor;

fennel; brinjal; chilly; cauliflower;

cabbage; ladies finger;

Keeps complete check on the

evaporation component of

ET

48 | P a g e

flowers; maize 2. Stops non-beneficial evaporation

(E), kills weeds and

pests

3. Extent of water saving higher

over drip irrigation

4. Faster germination and significant

yield growth

Green houses All horticultural and plantation

crops

Reduces non-beneficial

evaporation

2. Distribution uniformity is

poor and depends on number

of micro tubes on a lateral

Source: Adopted from Kumar et al.2011

The future potential of MI systems in improving basin level water productivity is primarily constrained by the physical characteristics of basins and the opportunities they provide for real water-saving at the field level, and area under crops that are conducive to MI systems in those basins. Preliminary analysis shows very modest potential of MI systems to the tune of 5.69 m ha, with an aggregate impact on crop water requirement to the tune of 43.35 BCM possible with drip adoption for six selected crops. Creating appropriate institutions for extension, designing water and electricity pricing policies apart from building proper irrigation and power supply infrastructure would play a crucial role in facilitating large-scale adoption of different MI systems. The subsidies for MI promotion should be targeted at regions and technologies, where MI adoption results in real water and energy saving at the aggregate level.

49 | P a g e

b) Irrigation Scheduling and Planning

Irrigation scheduling is a technique to timely and accurately give water to a crop. Jensen (1980) defined irrigation scheduling as “a planning and decision-making activity that the farm manager or operator of an irrigated farm is involved in before and during most of the growing season”. Irrigation scheduling has been described as the primary tool to improve water use efficiency, increase crop yields, increase the availability of water resources, and provoke a positive effect on the quality of soil and groundwater (FAO 1996; Afandi et al.2010). Crop water productivity is important component of irrigation scheduling. Crop water productivity is a quantitative term used to define the relationship between crop produced and the amount of water involved in crop production. While crop water budgeting involves planning of the cropping pattern It is a useful indicator for quantifying the impact of irrigation scheduling decisions with regard to water management (FAO, 2003).

Irrigation scheduling for particular crop is age old practice which farmers undertake with reference to particular growing period. However, with increase climatic variability many a time the conventional crop rotation systems are getting disrupted leading to decline in crop productivity. It has been increasingly realized by the scientist, practitioners and researchers that there is an urgent need to change the irrigation scheduling in order to meet the sudden climate shocks. Irrigation planning on the other hand involves the planning of all activities related to cultivation during any a particular growing period. Such planning includes the calculation of water balance, determination of cultivation dates, arrangements for operation and maintenance (O&M) activities, arranging cultivation loan facilities, deciding what crops are to be cultivated and the pattern of cropping etc. But the major activity for seasonal planning is the calculation of crop water budget for the whole season. It is generally calculated at the village or watershed level by using rainfall data and the assumed runoff coefficient estimation. The net availability of groundwater is estimated by either adding or deducting the previous season’s balance may be positive or negative water balance in each season depending on the recharge and draft. Based on the crop water requirements and the net available groundwater, crop areas are decided in a collective manner. Effective irrigation planning in Andhra Pradesh Farmer Managed Groundwater Systems (APFMGS) and APWALTA (Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act) projectis are some of the notable examples of farmer managed irrigation planning (Shah 2008; Kumar et al., 2011).

Although both timing and amount of water applied are component of scheduling timing has the greatest effect on crop yield and quality because at some crop growth stages excessive soil moisture stress, caused by a delayed irrigation and inadequate irrigation, can irreversibly reduce the potential yield and quality of the crop or both. Thus developing proper time/crop rotation schedule and the water balance needed for a particular growing season is important for irrigation efficiency. Herein lies the importance of irrigation planning. Applying effective irrigation planning is therefore critical in yield improvement, increase in irrigation water and increase crop water productivity under the tested climate change scenarios.

50 | P a g e

c) Modified Furrow or Surge Irrigation

Modified Furrow or surge irrigation is a variant of furrow irrigation where the water supply is pulsed on and off in planned time periods (e.g. on for ½ hour off for ½ hour). The wetting and drying cycles reduce infiltration rates resulting in faster advance rates and higher uniformities than continuous flow. The reduction in infiltration is a result of surface consolidation, filling of cracks and micro pores and the disintegration of soil particles during rapid wetting and consequent surface sealing during each drying phase. With increase incidence rainfall variability and temperature rise, such irrigation methods reduces the water losses and thus improves the irrigation efficiency.

C) Potential of Paddy Cultivation as an Adaptive Strategy: Irrigation Planning and

Intensification of Rice in Enhancing Water Use Efficiency:

Paddy cultivation in the semi arid environment is often being considered detrimental to ecology as it is a water guzzling crop (Kumar et al., 2011). This is perhaps the reason why extensive cultivation of rice in the Telengana regions has been severely criticized by the climate change protagonists. Kumar et al., (2011) argues about the positive externalities associated with paddy cultivation particularly in the canal command area. They argued that, ‘there is little appreciation of the fact that the consumptive water used by this crop is only a fraction of the total water applied, particularly when it was grown under partially submerged conditions. In practice, the applied water in excess of the depleted water (also known as consumptive fraction (CF), which is the sum of evapo-transpiration (ET), non-beneficial evaporation from soil strata and the non-recoverable deep percolation), would find its way to the groundwater system (Allen et al., 1998). There is no doubt that depletion of the water applied in the field could be more than the crop consumptive use, i.e., ET and this extra depletion would also be determined by the climate, soil and the depth of the dewatered zone below the crop root zone. The depletion of water can occur due to non recoverable deep percolation and non-beneficial evaporation from the soil after harvest of the crop’ (Kumar et al., 2008a; Kumar, 2009; Kumar and van Dam, 2009).

‘But, it is not correct assume that all the water applied in the field would eventually be depleted. In areas with shallow groundwater table, permeable soils, the return flow component of the applied water could be quite significant (Watt, 2008). This is the water which actually improves the groundwater condition in canal irrigated areas in the form of recharge to groundwater. It also explains the positive groundwater balance in the deltaic regions of coastal Andhra. It is seen that a significant portion of the renewable groundwater in alluvial Punjab is from irrigation return flows from both canal and well irrigation’.

‘Obviously, in addition to the factors mentioned above, the return flow fraction of the irrigation water applied would also be determined by the dosage of irrigation (Kumar et al., 2009), and moisture conditions in the soil profile (Watt, 2008; Kumar and Bassi, 2010). In flow irrigation, the depth of individual watering is normally high, and higher

51 | P a g e

than that of well irrigation. The reason is the lesser control farmers have over irrigation water delivery in the earlier case (Kumar et al., 2009). This facilitates higher hydraulic gradient and hydraulic conductivity, increasing the velocity of downward movement of water (Watt, 2008). Since generally, groundwater table is high in canal commands the return flow gets converted into recharge to groundwater, instead of remaining in the unsaturated soil zone contributing to moisture pressure in that zone. Even in well irrigation, dosages are quite high for paddy, due to the need for putting the field under partial submergence. Further in monsoon, the moisture levels in the soil profile would be generally good, which improves with applied water, increasing both the hydraulic gradient for movement of water, and soil hydraulic conductivity (Kumar and Bassi, 2010)’. They argued that paddy field irrigated with canal water would eventually provide the return flows to groundwater, which would be available for reuse, and therefore would help augment groundwater. Similarly, paddy irrigated with groundwater during kharif season would also provide substantial return flows, with availability of rains.

The System of Rice Intensification (SRI), introduced into Andhra Pradesh in 2003 with systematic evaluation in on-farm comparison trials across all districts of the state (Satyanarayana et al. 2006), takes on greater significance within the context of water limitations. Although SRI has not spread across the state on a large scale, experiences in a number of areas can be assessed for its potential to contribute to the policy objectives. It is particularly important to consider the extent to which the introduction of SRI can contribute to systemic corrections in tubewell and tank irrigation systems and to improving water productivity in an era when the effects of climate change are making this more urgent. Against the conventional practice of continuous flooding SRI transplanting of younger seedlings, usually 8–14 days of age (the two-leaf stage), with square spacing of 25 cm (using a marker), mostly single seedlings per hill (at times two), alternate wet and dry irrigation, and mechanical weeding, 1–3 times before canopy closure using a rotary weeder. A study conducted by compares the SRI with the conventional rice cultivation in two districts of Mahabhubnagar. The study has compared yield results, input use, economic returns, and water requirements and management between the two. The results show that SRI farmers in the 2009–2010 season had an 18% yield advantage, with a much higher increase in their net returns per hectare (52%) due to reductions in the cost of production. There was a reduction of 19% in the straw yield on SRI farms, reflecting an increase in harvest index. The number of irrigations and pumping hours were 52% lower with SRI than conventional crop management. Farmers could skip half of their irrigations during the crop season and still have higher yield and economic return. The estimated saving of about 845 pumping hours ha-1 amounted to a saving of 3,151 kWh of electricity, which is currently totally subsidized by the state. This amounts to a saving of Rs. 12,607 ha-1 given the cost of the power subsidy.

Saving of water with SRI in the field situation is observed to be higher than that reported from research station experiments, as present irrigation efficiency at field level is much lower. In tank irrigation systems, with SRI management, opening of sluice on alternate days was possible against the present practice of daily irrigation. This reportedly saved about 50 days of irrigation and enabled water to reach the tail-end farms, previously affected by inadequate supply. This study observed that there is further scope for

52 | P a g e

improving irrigation efficiency in tanks by having more infrastructure investments and appropriate management (Adusumilli and Bhagya Laxmi 2011).

d) Crop Diversification and Landuse Change under Fluctuating Water Supply Condition

In closing river basins where nearly all available water is committed to existing uses, downstream irrigation projects are expected to experience water shortages more frequently. Understanding the scope for resilience and adaptation of large surface irrigation systems is therefore vital to the development of management strategies designed to mitigate the impact of river basin closure on food production and the livelihoods of farmers. Use of alternative crops or cultivars adapted to the likely changes, alteration in the planting date, and management of plant spacing and input supply can results into reduction of the adverse impact of climate change on agriculture in general and irrigation in particular.

A multilevel analysis conducted by Venot et al., 2010 on the Nagarjuna Sagar dam of A.P revels that in times of changing water availability, essentially during low-flow years, there is large-scale adoption of rainfed or supplementary irrigation by the farmers in the head and tail ends of the dam. The study showed that farmers have adopted short-term coping strategies rather than long-term evolutions to face changes outside the range of farmer’s normal experience. For instance, with lower water availability paddy is progressively replaced by fallow and dry crops in Kharif like sorghum and millet.Cropping pattern changes led to lower agricultural value produced at the regional level, to lower land productivity but, in the same time, to higher water productivity showing that farmers optimize the “scarce” production factor, that is, water during a drought. Increasing irrigation efficiency through better land preparation and better operation and maintenance of field canals and drains was practiced For the sequence of water supply fluctuations observed from 2000 to 2006, the Nagarjuna Sagar irrigation system shows a high level of sensitivity to short-term perturbations, but long-term resilience if flows recover.

e) Climate Change and Organic Agriculture

Organic agriculture has emerged as an effective and efficient method in reducing GHGs (CO2, CH4 and N2O) emission mainly due to less use of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuel. It has been considered as a climate change resilience farming systems as it promotes the proper management of soil, water, biodiversity and local knowledge there by acting as a good option for adaptation to climate change. The carbon sink idea of the Kyoto Protocol may therefore partly be accomplished efficiently by organic agriculture (Food and Agriculture Organization 2008). In order to reduce GHG emissions from the agriculture sector, suggestions by IPCC (2007) included improving crop and grazing land management to increase soil carbon storage; improving nitrogen fertilizer application techniques to reduce N; and dedicated energy crops to replace fossil fuel use (IPCC 2007). Research reveals that consumption of fossil fuels in organic agriculture is about half that of conventional agriculture. In organic agriculture, almost 70% of CO2 emissions were due to fuel consumption and the production of machinery, while in conventional systems 75% of the CO2 emissions are ascribed to N-fertilizers, feedstuff and fuels (Food and Agriculture Organization 2008). The main factors responsible for

53 | P a g e

lower emission of CO2 from organic agriculture are maintenance and increase of soil fertility by the use of farmyard manure, the omission of synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides; and the lower use of energy-intensive animal feeds.

Sustainable agricultural strategies comprising recycling of organic matter, tightening internal nutrient cycles, and low- or no-tillage practices may rebuild organic matter levels and reduce losses from the system. A report estimated that a 20% increase in soil organic matter as a result of organic agriculture would result in a decrease of about 9 tonnes of carbon emission per hectare (Food and Agriculture Organization 2008).

f) Institution Building and Collective Action as an Instrument of Adaptation

Effective collective action in facilitating adaptation to climate variability is crucial in irrigated agriculture. Failure of several water harvesting structures points out to the fact that good techniques and design, are inadequate to integrate social, economic, and management factors into the development of the system (Bazza and Tayaa 1994). Thus evidence shows that technological interventions alone are not enough; sustainability requires institutional attention, not just for management purposes but also to mobilize the resources required to maintain the water storage and recharge particular with increase climate uncertainties (Palanisami et al. 2011). According to Thomas et al. (2005) more than any one specific piece of technology, a community’s ability to pool collective resources and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology may be the most effective mode to combat climate extremes. Since, climate change affects farmers collectively, it is thereby imperative to call for collective action as a possible solution to combat shocks. Collective action essentially is a multilayered approach involving education, training, capacity building, and information dissemination along with institution formation at local, regional and national level. The aim of successful institution building is to focus on behavioural change towards self-regulation using information and experience (Reddy and Reddy 2010). Formation of several community based organizations like farmer water schools, water user associations, etc stands out as an effective adaptation strategy to climate change. Evidence shows that integration of several local or sub-catchment’s community based organizations into an umbrella unit for a river basin has been found to improve water productivity and reduce water conflicts in river basins.

f) Effective management of Electricity and Groundwater as an Adaptive Strategy:

Of late, there has been growing recognition of the fact that subsidized and often free power supplied to agriculture is encouraging wasteful use of groundwater and electricity, apart from causing huge revenue losses to the state exchequer (Kumar and Singh, 2001; Kumar, 2005; Murthy and Raju, 2009; Saleth, 1997). This is evident from the data provided by Murthy and Raju (2009) for three districts of Andhra Pradesh. Their comparison of energy requirement for groundwater pumping for irrigation and the actual energy consumed shows huge wastage of electricity used up in agricultural pumping. Part of the reason, being the zero marginal cost of electricity, while the other reason being night power supply The total power subsidy for agriculture sector in Andhra Pradesh was Rs. 4,176 crore annually in 2001-02 (GOI, 2002). The amount of subsidy might have only

54 | P a g e

gone up with the total electricity consumption in agriculture going up to 13,267 million units in 2005-06 from 11,055 million units in 2000-01. The power supplied to agriculture being unreliable and of poorest quality (with supply being provided during night hours with voltage fluctuations and power cuts), farmers endure frustration and huge economic cost in the form of loss of production (Monari 2002), and thus virtually does not enjoy any subsidy. While this is true, what concerns is the marginal cost of electricity under flat rate system of pricing. It is still zero under flat rate tariff. Here, both the government and farmers loose, while both water and energy economy suffer. Ideally, energy supply and power pricing in farm sector can significantly influence the way groundwater is used in irrigation (Kumar, 2005; Kumar and Amarasinghe, 2009; Saleth, 1997; Zekri, 2008). The suggestions to regulate groundwater draft included improving the efficiency of pump sets (Mohan and Sreekumar, 2009), scientific rationing of power supply and metering and pro rata pricing of electricity (Shah and Verma, 2008; Shah et al., 2004).

Among these three important suggestions, the second one, i.e., of scientific rationing of power supply, has attracted attention in policy circles in the state. This has been propped up by the proponents of this idea as the second best solution for co-management of both electricity and groundwater economy in south Asia, after metering and pro-rata pricing, which according to them is unlikely to work under south Asian conditions (Shah et al., 2004). This is mainly because of the much publicized “success” of Jyotigram Yojna in Gujarat, wherein separation of feeder lines for agriculture and domestic sectors, and the limited 8-hours of high quality power was supposed to have resulted in control of electricity theft, and consequent rational use of electricity by farmers for irrigated crops and therefore efficient use of water for crop production (Shah et al., 2009). Shah and Verma (2008) argued on the basis of a survey of farmers in different areas of Gujarat that this experiment has been highly successful in reducing electricity use and therefore groundwater pumping in the state. But, evidence available is a “far cry” from what their claim entails. The fact is that the basalt and crystalline rock aquifers in the state are too poor to yield water for more than 2-3 hours in a day. Currently, power supply to agriculture is more a limited 5-6 hours a day. This is more than what farmers require to abstract the available water in their wells in most parts of Andhra Pradesh. The only exception would be coastal Andhra Pradesh in the deltaic region of basins such as Krishna and Godavari, where groundwater is abundant. This region accounts for only a small percentage of the state’s geographical area.

But, here again, groundwater is under-utilized and the demand for groundwater would be high only in years of drought when canal water release drops. Therefore, restriction on power supply is not going to change the way, farmers use groundwater for agriculture. On the other hand, there is evidence from other parts of India on the role of pro rata pricing of electricity combined with reliable power supply that ensures quality irrigation can bring about on efficiency, sustainability and equity in groundwater use (see Kumar, 2005 and Kumar, 2009). Kumar (2009) showed that when confronted with positive marginal cost of using groundwater (as found in the case of well-owning farmers who pay pro rata prices for electricity, and farmers who use wells run on diesel engines), farmers use water more efficiently in physical terms; grow crops that high higher water productivity in economic terms (Rs/m3), improve their overall farming system, and secure higher net returns from unit volume of water used at the farm level,

55 | P a g e

as compared to farmers who use wells run with electric pump sets and pay for electricity on the basis of connected load. The greater control over irrigation water helps diesel engine owners apply water as and when required, thereby achieving better on farm water management. Also, these farmers were also found to be using less amount of water per unit irrigated area, and the reduction was disproportionately higher than the reduction in net return from unit area of land (Rs/ha), making it possible to sustain the net return from irrigated farming with much less use of groundwater. Research also showed that the heavy subsidies well owning farmers enjoy under flat rate system of pricing electricity and the free electricity for groundwater pumping do not get transferred to the water buying farmers (Kumar 2009).

Summing Up:

Climate Change today stands as one of the prominent global environment issue affecting the lives of the marginalized. Managing such climatic shocks require an effective integration of resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategies. Resilience and adaptation to climate change often implies improving or at least maintaining the natural resource base through technological innovations, institutions building and policy imperatives. Mitigation on the other hand is an approach to lower down climate change variables within permissible limits. Considering the fact that mitigation and adaptation/resilience are completely different approach to deal the same problem its integration is all the more important in irrigated agriculture. Such an integration of adaptation to mitigation empowers the adaptation framework within the national and international climate change framework. It helps to prioritize the fiscal allocation and institutional support towards agriculture.

References

Adam, D. 2008. ‘World Carbon Dioxide Levels Highest for 650,000 Years’, says US Report. The Guardian (May 13, 2008).

Adusumilli Ravindra and S. Bhagya Laxmi(2011): “Potential of the system of rice intensification for systemic improvement in rice production and water use: the case of Andhra Pradesh”, India Paddy Water Environ, 9:89–97 Afandi El Gamal, Fouad A. Khalil, and Samiha A. Ouda (2010): “USING IRRIGATION SCHEDULING TO INCREASE WATER PRODUCTIVITY OF WHEAT-MAIZE ROTATION UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE CONDITIONS”. CHILEAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 70(3):474-484.

Agarwal Anil and Sunita Narain(1999): “Making Water Management Everybody’s Business: Water Harvesting and Rural Development in India” Gatekeeper Series no. 87.

56 | P a g e

Amarasinghe, Upali, B.K. Anand, Madar Samad and A. Narayanamoorthy (2007) “Irrigation in Andhra Pradesh: Trends and Turning Points,” paper presented at the workshop on Strategic Analyses of India's River Linking Project-A Case Study of the Polavaram- Vijayawada link, C Fred Bentley Conference Center, Building # 212, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, August 30, 2007.

Amor Yahyaoui, Mustapha El-Bouhssini, Michael Baum, Luis Iñiguez and Kamel Shideed(2007): “ Increasing the Resilience of Dryland Agro-ecosystems to Climate Change” An Open Access Journal published by ICRISAT December 2007 Volume 4, Issue 1 and Environmental Impacts of Irrigation Farming in Tanzania: Selected Cases. Dar es Salaam University Press.

Bazza, M., and M. Tayaa (1994) “Operation and management of water harvesting techniques. In: Water harvesting for Improved Agricultural Production”. Proceedings of the FAO Expert Consultation, Cairo, Egypt.

Charles, N. and Rashid, H. (2007) Micro-Level Analysis of Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change in Southern Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 00714, Washington DC, USA. Custodio, E. (2000) The Complex Concept of Over-exploited Aquifer, Secunda Edicion, Uso Intensivo de Las Agua Subterráneas, Madrid.

Dhawan ,B.D (1988): “Irrigation in India's agricultural development: productivity, stability, equity” Sage Publications.

DILLON PETER, IAN GALE, SAMUEL CONTRERAS, PAUL PAVELIC, RICHARD EVANS & JOHN WARD(2009): “Managing Aquifer Recharge and Discharge to Sustain Irrigation Livelihoods Under water Scarcity and Climate Change”, Key Note Paper, Improving Integrated Surface and Groundwater Resources Management in a Vulnerable and Changing World Proction at the Joint IAHS & IAH Convention, Hyderabad, India.

Doll Petra ( 2002:) “IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND VARIABILITY ON IRRIGATION REQUIREMENTS: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE”, Climatic Change 54: 269–293.

Eriyagama Nishadi and Vladimir Smakhtin ( 2010 ): “Observed and Projected Climatic Changes, Their Impacts and Adaptation Options for Sri Lanka: A Review”, conference proceddings on Water, Food Security and Climate Change, May 2009, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

FAO (1996) “Irrigation scheduling from theory to practice”. Water Reports 8. 384 p. FAO, Rome, Italy.

57 | P a g e

Faures Jean Marc and Aditi Mukherji(2007): “Trends and Drivers of Asian Irrigation”, IWMI research Paper.

Gosain A K and Rao S (2007): “Impact Assessment of Climate Change on Water Resources of Two River Systems in India”, Jalvigyan Sameeksha, 22 21.

Government of India (2005): “Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Groundwater in India”, (New Delhi: Central Groundwater Board, Ministry of Water Resources)

Groenfeldt, D. (2005): “Building on tradition: Indigenous irrigation knowledge and sustainable development in Asia”. Agric. Hum. Values 8:114-120. Gulati A (2007) Re-energizing agriculture sector of Andhra Pradesh: from food security to income opportunities. International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi. Henson, R. (2006): “The Rough Guide to Climate Change”, Rough Guides Ltd., London, UK. 352pp. Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. ‘Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report.’

Irwin, A. 2009. Climate Change ‘More Serious’ as Emissions Soar. Science and Development Network’. Available at: www.scidev.net/en/news/climate-change more-serious-as-emissions-soar.html (April 30, 2009).

Jain A.K.,B. M. Muralikrishna Rao, M.S. Rama Mohan Rao and M. Venkata Swamy (2009): “Groundwater Scenario in Andhra Pradesh”, WASHCost - CESS Working Paper No.3.

Jensen, M.E.(1980): “Design and Operation of Farm Irrigation Systems”. Monograph 3. p. 220-256. American Society of Agricultural Engineering, Michigan, Michigan, USA.

Kumar M. Dinesh, MVK Sivamohan, V. Niranjan, Nitin Bassi (2011) “Groundwater management in Andhra Pradesh: Time to Address Real Issues” Occasional Paper No. 4-0211.

Kumar, M. Dinesh and O. P. Singh (2001) “Market Instruments for Demand Management in the Face of Scarcity and Overuse of Water in Gujarat,” Water Policy, 3 (5).

Kumar, M. Dinesh and O. P. Singh (2008): “How Serious Are Groundwater Over-exploitation Problems in India? Fresh Investigations into an Old Issue”, proceedings of the 7th Annual Partners’ Meet of IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research Program “Managing Water in the Face of Growing Scarcity, Inequity and Declining Returns: Exploring Fresh Approaches,” ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, 2-4 April, 2008.

58 | P a g e

Majule AE and Mwalyosi RBB (2005: “The Role of Traditional Irrigation on Small Scale Production in Rufiji Basin, Southern Highland Tanzania: A case of Iringa Region”.In: Sosovele, H., J. Boesen and F. Maganga (eds.). 2005. Social Manitoba, Canada. http://www.iisd.org/

Mengistu K. Djene (2011): “Farmers’ perception and knowledge of climate change and their coping strategies to the related hazards: Case study from Adiha, central Tigray, Ethiopia”, Vol.2, No.2, 138-145 (2011) doi:10.4236/as.2011.22020. Mengu, G. P. Akkuzu, E. Anac, S. Sensoy, S. Fresenius (2011): Impact of Climate Change on Irrigated Agriculture”, Environmental Bulletin. 2011. 20: 3a, 823-830. Milly P C D, Betancourt J, Falkenmark M, Hirsch R M, Kundzewicz Z W, Lettenmaier D P and Stouffer R J (2008) : “Stationarity is Dead: Wither Water Management?” Science, 319 573–4.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 2009. ‘Greenhouse Gases Continue to Climb despite Economic Slump: Carbon Dioxide, Methane Increased in 2008’. Available at: www.noaanews.noaa.gov/ stories2009/20090421_carbon.html (April 30, 2009).

Palanisami K, Kadiri Mohan, K.R Kakumanu and S Raman (2011) : “ Spread and Economics of Micro –Irrigation in India: Evedience from Nine States”. Economic and Political Weekly, June, Vol. XLVI, No. 26 and 27.

Palanisami K, Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Mark Giordano (2010): “Climate change and Water Supplies Options for Sustaining Tank Irrigation Potential In India”, Economic and political Weekly, June, Vol.XLV No. 26 and 27.

Parry J, Hammill A and Drexhage J. (2005): “Climate Change and Adaptation”.

Pingle Gautam (2011): “ Irrigation In Telengana: The Rise and Fall of Tanks”, Economic And Political weekly, June, Vol. XLVI, No. 26 and 27.

Rawal Vikas (2001): “Expansion of Irrigation in West Bengal: Mid-1970s to Mid-1990s”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 36, No. 42 (Oct. 20-26), pp. 4017-4024.

Reddy M. Srinivasa and V. Ratna Reddy(2010): “Groundwater: Development, Degradation and Management (A Study of Andhra Pradesh)”, Working Paper No. 92 RULNR Working Paper No. 7 December, 2010.

Report on 4th Minor Irrigation Census 2006-07 Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

59 | P a g e

Schellnhuber, H.J. et al., (eds.) (2006): Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change”, Cambridge University Press, UK. Shah T (2009): “Climate change and groundwater: India’s opportunities for mitigation and adaptation” Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009) 035005 (13pp).

Shah T (2009): “Taming the Anarchy? Groundwater Governance in South Asia

Shiklomanov, I. A. (ed.): 1997, ‘Comprehensive Assessment of the Freshwater Resources of the World: Assessment of Water Resources and Water Availability in the World’, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Shukla P R, Nair R, Kapshe M, Garg A, Balasubramaniam S, Menon D and Sharma K K (2003) Development and climate: an assessment for India Unpublished Report Submitted to UCCEE, Denmark (Ahmedabad: Indian Institute of Management) http://www.developmentfirst.org/india/report/fullreport.pdf South Asia”, (Washington, DC: RFF).

Stern, N. (2007): “The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review. Cambridge University Press, UK, 712pp. Tarhule, A. and Lamb, P. (2003) Climate research and seasonal forecasting for West Africans: Perceptions, Disseminations, and Use? Bull. American Meteorological Society, 84, 1741-1759. doi:10.1175/BAMS-84-12-1741.

Thomas J Richard , Eddy de Pauw, Manzoor Qadir, Ahmed Amri, Mustapha Pala,

V. Ratna Reddy (2003): “Irrigation: Development and Reforms” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 38, No. 12/13 (Mar. 22 - Apr. 4, 2003), pp. 1179-1189.

Whitcombe E (2005): “Irrigation The Cambridge Economic History of India”, vol. 2 ed D Kumar and M Desai (Hyderabad: Orient Longman) pp 677–737.

Zhouchun Chen(2009): “ Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Agriculture”, Journal of Northeast Agricultural University, 2009

60 | P a g e

CHAPTER FIVE Conclusions and Recommendations

5.1 Conclusions

rrigation sector in Andhra Pradesh is in a process of rapid transformation from surface to groundwater. Among several coorelates of such paradigm shift, climate change (CC) caused by pronounced rainfall variability stands out significant. In other

words, with decrease in the number of rainy days and popular misconception that aquifer can yield unlimited fresh water, resulted in tube well revolution with fast depleting groundwater resources. Such a shift had a major negative impact on the groundwater aquifer, particularly in the hard rock regions of Telangana and Rayelseema. Evidence suggests that climate change has transformed groundwater into a more critical and yet threatened resource, and requires a reorientation of the state’s water management strategy for its further growth. Given the fact that marginal and small farmers are most vulnerable to any climatic extremities developing efficient management strategies for effective irrigational development is crucial. In fact, managing shortages and understanding the relationships between shocks in water supplies and agricultural systems have thus become critical in irrigation policy (Perry and Narayanamurthy 1998). Literature on climate change has extensively advocated several supply augmentation (increased storage capacity, improved conveyance and distribution system, better operation and maintenance, and development of new sources of water ) and demand management options (users’ participation, crop diversification toward high input crops, better land preparation and cropping practices, better irrigation scheduling and modern methods, etc.)(Pereira et al. 2002) to cope under scarcity conditions. Preceding chapter documented details of such adaptive strategies to climate uncertainties. The idea is to identify area specific adaptive measures for the SPACC project from this exhaustive list. Following chapter attempts to recommend comprehensive adaptation measures that can be undertaken in the successive course of the project implementation.

5.2 Recommendations on Adaptive Strategies to Climate Change for SPACC

a) Managed Aquifer Recharge: Reorienting India’s agriculture strategy to meet the challenge of hydro-climatic change demands a paradigm change in the official thinking about water management and irrigational practices. Managed Aquifer Recharge can act as an effective adaptation strategy to both augmenting and storing water in the shallow aquifer and hard rock aquifer of the project areas. In such kind of agro-climatic zones, together with intelligent management of the energy–irrigation nexus, mass-based decentralized managed groundwater recharge offers a major short-run supply-side opportunity. Public agencies are

I

61 | P a g e

likely to attract maximum farmer participation in any programs that augment on-demand water availability around farming areas. Evidences shows that engaging in groundwater recharge is often the first step for communities to evolve norms for local, community-based demand management.

b) Conjunctive Use of Surface and Ground Water: Conjunctive management of rain, surface water and groundwater is the big hitherto underexploited opportunity for supply-side management. Given the presence of canals, tanks and wells in the project areas such a management strategy can act as an effective climate proofing strategy. In fact surface systems in these water-stressed regions of Telengana and Rayalseema need to be remodeled to mimic the on-demand nature of groundwater irrigation. However, such conjunctive management in turn requires a strong institutional capacity and could be achieved through spatial planning based on a sound understanding of the interactions between surface and groundwater in the command area. Possible interventions include facilitating licensing and/or subsidies to dig wells in the upper reaches of the canal network; reducing canal supply during the rainy season as the water table increases, introducing rotational supply that accounts for alternative water sources, accounting for groundwater potential for planning cropping pattern in the command area, etc (Venot et al., 2010)

c) Watershed Management as a climate proofing mechanism: Watershed management can be implemented as effective adaptive strategy to climate change. Several water harvesting structures like check dams, percolation tanks, farm ponds etc can be used as a mechanism to recharge ground water aquifer.

d) Water efficient Technological solutions: Drip irrigation is an effective tool for conserving water resources and studies have revealed significant water saving ranging between 40 and 70% by drip irrigation compared with surface irrigation, with yield increases as high as 100% in some crops in specific locations. In view of its higher water use efficiency, wider adaptability to diversity of soils, crops, climate etc., its wide scale applicability in the project site is highly recommended (Kumer et al., 2010, Chandrasekharan and Pandian 2009).

e) The System of Rice Intensification Scarcity of water essentially due to rainfall

reductions and variability is the primary cause for poor agricultural production in the project areas, particularly paddy. Rainfall patterns in several of the districts under SPACC project are facing unreliable water supply, with extremes of drought occurring at unexpected times. Considering the water intensive nature of the paddy and the growing water shortages in the project area, developing efficient and economic water use methods can be an effective adaptive strategy. System of rice intensification is one of such options that intends to (a) increase yields and production so that economic and food-security goals are met at the same time that it can (b) reduce farmers’ costs of production, enhancing profitability, and (c) decrease the amounts of irrigation water required (Stoop et al. 2002; Uphov 2003; Randriamiharisoa et al. 2006).

62 | P a g e

f) Contingency Crop planning for the project area: In the context of current climate, as well as predicted increases in mean temperature and rainfall variability, adaptation and mitigation strategies are needed urgently for agricultural crops so that they are better adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses, leading to higher crop productivity. Use of alternative crops or cultivars adapted to the likely changes, alteration in the planting date, and management of plant spacing and input supply might help in reducing the adverse impact in most of the project villages. Use of resource-conservation technologies and a shift from sole cropping to diversified farming system is highly recommended. Horticulture and agro-forestry need to be given more encouragement. Enabling policies on crop insurance, subsidies and pricing related to water and energy uses need to be strengthened at the earliest. Policies that would encourage farmers to enrich organic matter in the soil need emphasis. Also, it is necessary to develop a robust early warning system of spatio-temporal changes in weather as well as other environmental parameters. Contingency crop planning will require greater attention. Long-term strategic approaches to efficiently conserve and utilize rain water on the one hand and in-season tactical approaches to mitigate the adverse effects of weather aberrations on the other are also needed (JoshiI and Kar 2009, Varshney et al 2011)

g) Effective community mobilization and Institution building: Perhaps the most critical aspect of any adaptation strategy is effective community mobilization and institution building at the grass root level. Community’s ability to pool collective resources and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology may be the most effective mode to combat climate extremes. Since, climate change affects farmers collectively, it is thereby imperative to call for collective action as a possible solution to combat shocks. Several grassroot institutions like water user associations, watershed committees, user groups, forest groups climate schools etc needs to be promoted in the project areas. There is a need to create awareness among the people by using mass media followed by individual contact method through trained extension agents. Dissemination of the understanding that faulty irrigation practices, inefficient water use can disturb the ecological balance and consequently, to climate change is necessary. Such an understanding would provide an opportunity to take resilience measures towards ecological redressal and willingness for benign action to minimize and mitigate the bad consequences of climate change. Farmers innovativeness and adaptability need to be upheld through services supporting the agricultural sector like better access to credit for inputs, improvement of market chains, extension services, better access to information, etc.. There should be internalized allocation rules like the REALM modeling highlighted the scope for further refining allocation practices by accounting for farmer practices of soil moisture and groundwater use. Finally, negotiating and implementing some form of water entitlements within irrigation projects could help in devising community management strategies and be an option to achieve equity and sustainability of water allocation and help in mitigating shocks and negative externalities.

63 | P a g e

At the end, resilience and adaptation to climate change often implies improving or at least maintaining the natural resource base through technological innovations, institutions building and policy imperatives. Mitigation on the other hand is an approach to lower down climate change variables within permissible limits. Considering the fact that mitigation and adaptation/resilience are completely different approach to deal the same problem its integration is all the more important in irrigated agriculture. Such an integration of adaptation to mitigation empowers the adaptation framework within the national and international climate change framework. It helps to prioritize the fiscal allocation and institutional support towards agriculture. Effective integration of resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategy is required for irrigated agriculture. This is essentially to prioritized the fiscal and institutional policies for irrigational development and management of climate shocks.

References

Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. ‘Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report.’

Stoop W, UphoV N, Kassam A (2002) A review of agricultural research issues raised by the system of rice intensiWcation (SRI) from Madagascar: opportunities for improving farming systems for resource-poor farmers. Agric Syst 71:249–274

Uphoff N (2003) Higher yields with fewer external inputs? The system of rice intensification and potential contributions to agricultural sustainability. Int J Agric Sustain 1:38–50

Randriamiharisoa R, Barison J, UphoV N (2006) Soil biological contributions to the system of rice production. In: Uphoff N et al (eds) Biological approaches to sustainable soil systems. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 409–424

Rajeev Kailash C. Bansal, Pramod K. Aggarwal, Swapan K. Datta and Peter Q. Craufurd (2011) “Agricultural biotechnology for crop improvement in a variable climate: hope or hype?” Trends in Plant Science July 2011, Vol. 16, No. 7, 364

N.L. JOSHI* AND AMAL KAR (2009) “Contingency crop planning for dryland areas in relation to climate change”,Indian Journal of Agronomy, June, 54(2): 237-243.

Perry, C. J., and Narayanamurthy, S.G. _1998_. “Farmers’ response to rationed and uncertain irrigation supplies.” Research Rep. No. 24, IWMI, Colombo, Sri Lanka.

64 | P a g e

Pereira, L. S., Oweis, T., and Zairi, A. _2002_. “Irrigation management under water scarcity.” Agric. Water Manage., 57, 175–206.

Venot Philippe ; Kiran Jella; Luna Bharati; Biju George; Trent Biggs; Parthasaradhi Gangadhara Rao; Murali Krishna Gumma; and Sreedhar Acharya(2010): “Farmers’ Adaptation and Regional Land-Use Changesin Irrigation Systems under Fluctuating Water Supply, South India”,JOURNAL OF IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE ENGINEERING © ASCE / SEPTEMBER 2010 Jean-

65 | P a g e

Annexure 1

Format for collecting data

Total irrigated area of the state

year Net irrigated area

Gross irrigated area

Net Sown Area Gross sown area

Source wise and year wise irrigation

year

canal tanks well Other sources

Net irrigat

ed area

Net sow

n area

% net irrigat

ed area

Net irrigat

ed area

Net sow

n area

% net irrigat

ed area

Net irrigat

ed area

Net sow

n area

% net irrigat

ed area

Net irrigat

ed area

Net sow

n area

% net irrigat

ed area

District/region wise irrigation expansion

Regions/districts year canal well tanks Other sources

Ground water assessment

Year Ground water balance

Rainfall variability across time

year Average annual

rainfall

66 | P a g e

Cropping pattern

Types of crops Districts/regions Total cropped area