Question

Effects of irrigation on changing pattern in india

Answer 1

India could reduce the water it uses for irrigation by a third, and simultaneously address its persistent malnutrition problem, if it replaced its rice crop with more nutritious and less thirsty cereals, a study of irrigation-water use over 43 years has found.

Of the cereals grown in India, rice consumes the most water per tonne of output while delivering the least nutrients — iron, zinc and protein — according to the study published in Science Advances, a global science journal. The suggested replacements for rice are maize, finger millet, pearl millet and sorghum, all of which consume less water per tonne and are more nutritious.