International Journal of Pure & Applied Bioscience (IJPAB)
Year : 2017, Volume : 5, Issue : 1
First page : (400) Last page : (416)
Article doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2490
Water-Smart-Agriculture to Cope With Changing Climate in Smallholders Farming Areas of Subtropical India: A Review
R.K. Naresha; Ashish Dwivedia *; Vineet Kumarb; Ankit Kumarc; S.P. Singhb; Saurabh Tyagia; Bhanu Pratapd; Nihal Chandra Mahajana; Onkar Singhb; R. S. Rathoree and Raj K. Guptaf
aDepartment of Agronomy; bDepartment of Soil Science; cDepartment of Plant Pathology; dDepartment of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut-250110, U.P., India
eUttar Pradesh Council of Agricultural Research, Lucknow- U.P., India
fBorlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), New Delhi 110 012, India
*Corresponding Author E-mail: ashishdwivedi842@gmail.com
Received: 22.01.2017 | Revised: 4.02.2017 | Accepted: 7.02.2017
ABSTRACT
Agriculture affects climate through emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These emissions come directly from use of fossil fuels, tillage practices, fertilized agricultural soils and livestock manure in large proportion. Conversely, agriculture could be a solution for climate change by the widespread adoption of mitigation and adaptation actions. This happens with the help of conservation agriculture practices. Reducing emissions of agricultural greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane and nitrous oxide, and sequestering carbon in the soil or in living biomass can help reduce the impact of agriculture on climate change while improving productivity and reducing resource use. Globally, the water requirement to feed the world in 2050 would be an increase of ~4500 km3/yr from the current ~7000 km3/yr. Water productivity improvements could save up to 2200 km3/yr reducing the future additional needs to ~2300 km3/yr. This saving is larger than the world’s current total consumption of water in irrigated agriculture. In India the availability of water for agriculture is expected to decline from 84% in 2010 to 74% by 2050.
Under the scenario of producing 350 million tones food grain from shrinking water resources, this will put tremendous pressure on the existing water sources. This challenge can be met either by inter basin water transfer or by enhancing irrigation efficiency and water productivity or both. Increasing crop water productivity is a key response option where water is scarce compared with land and other resources involved in production. Improvements to agricultural water productivity help to meet rising demands for food from a growing, wealthier, and increasingly urbanized population, when at the same time there are pressures to reallocate water from agriculture to cities and to make more water available for environmental uses contribute to the urgency for achieving gains in agricultural water management. There is a clear link between water, poverty reduction and economic growth. For the rural poor more productive use of water can mean better nutrition for families, more income, and productive employment.
Key words: Climate change, Food security, Livelihoods, Greenhouse gas emission
Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782
Cite this article: Naresh, R.K., Dwivedi, A., Kumar, V., Kumar, A., Singh, S.P., Tyagi, S., Pratap, B., Mahajan, N.C., Singh, O., Rathore, R.S. and Gupta, R.K., Water-Smart-Agriculture to Cope With Changing Climate in Smallholders Farming Areas of Subtropical India: A Review, Int. J. Pure App. Biosci.5(1): 400-416 (2017). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2320-7051.2490
