What is the effect of the green revolution on soil and ground water table
Answers
Starting in the 1960s, the ‘Green Revolution’ has transformed the face of Indian agriculture, having almost quadrupled the foodgrain production, in turn making the country self-sufficient as well as one of the largest exporters of foodgrain in the world. Water has been the undisputed driver of Green Revolution in India as elaborated in the story dated 20 December 2017. Without application of the right amount of irrigation water at the right time, these successes would not have been achieved despite availability of the other three essential components, namely, high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. However, this agricultural success has not come without a price. Both quantity as well as quality of water resources in the country has come to be seriously impacted as a result of Green Revolution. The cultivation of HYVs across the country has multiplied the irrigation demand as a result of which as much as 80% of India’s water resources stand diverted for irrigation. The canal irrigation networks developed and strengthened to support Green Revolution take the lion’s share from rivers and other surface water bodies, leading to drying up and disappearance of these sources. Further, failure or absence of canal irrigation has led to large-scale dependence on groundwater instead. Today more than 50% of the irrigated area depends on groundwater and in several districts it is more than 80%. According to Central Groundwater Board (CGWB), about 92% of the country’s ground water draft is used for irrigation.