International Water Management Institute & Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (ICAR), Hyderabad POTENTIAL OF RAINFED AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

Estimated partitioning of the increased freshwater requirements between rainfed and irrigated agriculture

Global analysis of over 100 agricultural developmental projects found that yield levels in projects focused on improving rainfed agriculture has raised on average by 100%, often several hundred percent, while the comparable achievement in irrigated projects was a yield increase of only 10%. Under rainfed farming, operating at a lower yield level, every new investment results in a relatively higher and more equitable yield response.

Range of rainfall variability across hydro-climatic zones

Annual P, PET and moisture deficit index for different dryland stations of India StationsP, mmPET, mmMDI, % Ludhiana Hisar N. Delhi Jodhpur Agra Hyderabad Anantpur Rajkot Akola Indore

Half of the rainfall is generally “lost” to the atmosphere as non-productive evaporation. Non-productive evaporation Rainfall partitioning in farming system in semi-arid tropics.

Drylands of India  Erratic rainfall leading to frequent drought events  Degraded lands  Resource poor farmers  Small and marginal holdings  Lowering of groundwater table 25 dryland centres and 25 Agromet centres work on dryland technologies all over the country

Rice46% Groundnut80% Soybean97% Rapeseed mustard36% Sunflower76% Safflower99% Sesame96% Linseed97% Castor96% Pigeonpea96% Chickpea78% Blackgram94% Greengram93% Cotton67% Wheat14% Sorghum91% Pearlmillet94% Fingermillet90% Maize76% Predominant Rainfed Crops

 Drought and water scarcity is a constant threat  Stubborn poverty & food insecurity  Low rainwater use efficiency, low crop productivity & high instability  Land degradation & declining soil health  Acute fodder shortage and poor livestock productivity Challenges of Rainfed Areas

Comparison of important characteristics of predominantly rainfed and irrigated regions of India ParameterRainfed regions Irrigated regions All regions Pop. density (p/km2) Pro. of small farms,% Poverty ratio, headcount, % Land prod. INR/ha Labor prod. INR/ha Food grain con. kg/cap/a Bank credit, INR/ha Infra. Dev. Index Pro. of irri. area, %154842

Distribution of rainfed crop based production systems in different rainfall zones

Seasonal and Annual Rainfall over India SeasonRainfall (mm)Percent of Annual Rainfall Quantum of Rainwater (m. ha. m * ) Pre-Monsoon (Mar – May) Monsoon (Jun – Sep) Post-Monsoon (Oct – Nov) Winter (Dec – Feb) Annual * Million hectare meters

Any region which has less than 30% irrigated area through major/ minor/ groundwater irrigation is considered to be as rainfed and the agriculture practiced is “Rainfed Agriculture” Water management ranges from in-situ conservation to drainage and ex-situ water harvesting for supplemental irrigation Watershed based water management is backbone for overall land productivity improvement Rainfed Agriculture covers all the climates and several annual/ perennial crops; thus encompasses a range of agro-eco-regions Contribution to food production 44% Supports 40% of population and 2/3 of livestock

India- Rainfed Region Irrigated area (> 30% irrigation) Rainfed area (< 30% irrigation ) Geographical area328.7 m.ha Net cultivated area161.8 m.ha Net Rainfed area141.7 m.ha Net Irrigated area50.1 m.ha

Coarse Cereals % Change in area, irrigation and productivity:

Oilseeds Change in area, irrigation and productivity: %

Pulses % Change in area, irrigation and productivity:

% Rice Change in area, irrigation and productivity:

Early Drought Probability of consecutive 3 dry weeks from July 1 st Week Probability (%)

Terminal Drought Probability of consecutive 3 dry weeks from September 2 nd Week Probability (%)

Identification of Rainfed districts Priority 1 AESR 3-13 Districts constituting top 85% area Priority 2 Districts with irrigation except canal irrigated (Future)

Delineation of Sunflower Districts Selection CriteriaNo. of Districts Area under Sunflower (‘000 ha) Area under Rainfed Sunflower (‘000 ha) Gross Cropped Area (‘000 ha) Yield (kg/ha) Rainfed States (13) AESR Cumulative 85% Rainfed Sunflower Area State NameDistrict Name KarnatakaBijapur,Gulbarga,Raichur,Dharwad MaharastraAhmednagar,Solapur,Osmanabad,Beed,Parbhani,Nanded

Delineation of Rainfed Soybean Districts Selection criteriaNo. of districts Area under Soybean (‘000 ha) Area under Rainfed Soybean (‘000 ha) Gross Cropped Area (‘000 ha) Yield (kg/ha) Rainfed states (13) AESR Cumulative 85% Rainfed Soybean Area State NameDistrict Name Madhya Pradesh Ujjain,Sehore,Mandsaur,Betul,Ratlam,Seoni,Narsinghpur,Vidisha,Shajapur, Hoshangabad, Dhar,Indore,Dewas,Chhindwara, Sagar, Guna, Raisen Maharastra Nagpur RajasthanJhalawar, Chittorgarh

Water balance analysis Climatic water balance Crop Water balance FAO Crop water balance was carried out for each district for dominant crops with dominant soil type and water holding capacity. Analysis of district/Sub-agro climatic region wise deficits of effective rainfall in meeting the water requirements of important crops at different time periods of crop growth.

Sowing is supposed to be completed with normal onset of monsoon. Normal crop duration was assumed. Results include crop wise and AESR wise surplus/deficit during the crop growing season. FAO standard crop coefficients were used. Surplus was estimated after deleting districts with surplus of 50mm and those districts with runoff less than 10% of rainfall. Assumption: The above surplus can reasonably utilised through in-situ moisture conservation practices. Not considered the spatial variability with in soil. Ideally, the model should be run for the crop covered area with underlying soil properties. Constraint: Distribution of cropped area changes across the district during different years.

Dominant districts for Sunflower week PPT/PE PPT PE PPT PE Gulbarga AWHC=150.00mm Week PPT/PE/WR PPT PE WR Bijapur AWHC=150.00mm Week PPT/PE/WR PPT PE WR

Dominant districts for Cotton Yeotmal AWHC=150.00mm Week PPT/PE/WR PPT PE WR Amravati AWHC=150.00mm Week PPT/PE/WR PPT PE WR week PPT/PE PPT PE week PPT/PE PPT PE

Surplus, m ha.m

Deficit

Drought Years  Case studies were carried out for few dominant districts of Andhra pradesh covering Rayalaseema, Telengana and Coastal Andhra regions.  Crop Water balance model was run for those dominant districts with predominant soil type for different years ranging from 1966 onwards.  Normal years and moderate drought years were separated based on IMD declaration for meteorological subdivision. Assumed that the those districts falling in that met divisions were all affected by drought.  Runoff was calculated for total crop season and for the period of SMW of weeks which could be harvested for supplemental irrigation.  2/3 of runoff during SMW could be utilised for supplemental irrigation.  85% application efficiency was considered.

Surplus,mm

 Water Use is proportional to Yield  Difference in yield increase between drought to normal year is linearly proportional to difference in yield.  Incremental yield per mm of water is estimated. Based on runoff, harvestable runoff for supplemental irrigation is estimated and increase in production is also estimated.

Possibility of increase in production during Drought years

 During drought years production can be enhanced in medium to high rainfall areas with more certainity. Response from Medium to Deep soils would be higher.  During normal years, cropping intensity can be enhanced by provision of one irrigation at the time of sowing in rabi season.  Supplenmental irrigation can be given to low to medium deep soils in high to medium rainfall zones.  Stability of production can be ensured during normal years from shallow depth soils also.

IRS-P6 LISS-III data showing spatial distribution of COTTON crop in Nagpur district (Oct. 11, 2004) Area: ha

Yield gap analysis Crop : Cotton DistrictYieldgap Guntur Prakasam33-66% Adilabad,Ahmedabad, Akola,Amravati Aurangabad Baroda Belgaum Broach Buldhana Chandrapur Dewas Dharwad Dhule Jalgaon Jalna Khandwa Khargone Kurnool Mehsana Nagpur Nanded Parbhani Raichur Shimoga Wardha YeotmalMore than 66%

DistrictYield gap Adilabad, Ambala, Bastar, Chhindwara,Chittorgarh,Dumka,Etah,Farukkabad Gurdaspur,Hoshiarpur,Kanpur (Dehat), Khargone Mandla, Mandsaur, Medak, Nizamabad, Roopnagar ‘Sabarkantha Shajapur 33-66% Dharwad,Karimnagar, Mysore ShimogaLess than 33% Ballia, Banswara, Betul, Bhilwara Bilaspur Buduan,Bundi,Dewas, Dhar,Dhule,Dungarpur Ganjam Guna Hardoi Hazaribagh Indore Jaunpur Jhabua,Jhalawar, Kaira,Kalahandi, Keonjhar Kheri, Koraput,Kota, Lalitpur, Palamu,Panch Mahals Phulbani,Ratlam,Saharanpur, Shahdol,Shivpuri,Sidhi Sitapur,Surguja, Tonk, Udaipur,Unnao More than 66% Maize

Supplemental irrigation through Water harvesting RainfallSoils, AWHCResponse to SI during normal year Low WH not possible LowMediumWH not possible LowHighWH not possible MediumLowWH not possible Medium GoodWH not possible MediumHighAverageGood HighLowGood HighMediumAverageGood High Average

Rain water harvesting and recycling – Farm pond - lined with local material Assessment of the response of other production inputs use such as fertilizer, high-yielding variety use of major rainfed crops

Improving the productivity of groundnut + pigeonpea intercropping system through supplemental irrigation – Anantapur in a drought year

Effect of different amounts of supplemental irrigation during drought stress at pod development stage of groundnut - Anantapur

TreatmentGreen leaf (kg/ha) Cured leaf (kg/ha) Bright leaf (kg/ha) Bright leaf (%) Grade index (kg/ha) T1 20 mm, one irrigation T2 30 mm, one irrigation T3 30 mm two irrigation (15 mm + 15 mm) T4 40 mm one irrigation T5 40 mm two irrigation (20 mm + 20 mm) T6 control (no irrigation) SEM  CD at 5% CV (%) Supplemental irrigation improves Tobacco grade

Soil Water Conservation Surplus IndexPossible Options <12In-situ conservation (I) 12-25In-situ conservation (I) and Water Harvesting (WH) >25Drainage (D), In-situ conservation (I) and Water Harvesting Crop Management Options Yield GapPossible Options <33Non monetary inputs (NMI) and improved varieties (V) 33-66Non monetary inputs (NMI), Fertilizer Management (F) and Improved Varieties (V) >66Improved Varieties (V), Fertilizer Management (F), Plant protection measures (PP), Non monetary inputs (NMI) or shifting alternate land uses

Viability of Water Harvesting in different Climatic Zones Climatic zoneRainfallPossibility Hyper arid<100 mmToo dry for viable runoff farming (P/PET < 0.3) like in desert areas Arid mmRunoff farming is possible (P/PET 0.03 – 0.2) Semi-arid mmRunoff farming is practicable (P/PET 0.02 – 0.5) Sub-humid>1000mmCombine runoff farming with shallow water table/ Choes/ Springs etc.) like in Himalayan montane and sub-montane region (P/PET > 0.5) P/PET is ratio of Precipitation (rainfall) to Potential Evapo-Transpiration

Components of Rainwater Management in watershed Mode 1.In-situ conservation 2.Grade line Bund 3.Drainage line treatment 4.Water harvesting & utilization 5.Groundwater recharge Agro Climatic ZoneRainfall (mm)Order of components Arid , 3 Dry Semi-arid , 1, 3, 5 Wet Semi-arid , 3, 4, 5, 1 Sub-humid , 4, 2, 1, 5 Per-humid>25003, 4, 2, 1

StatesIntercropping systemBase crop + Pigenonpea yield(kg/ha) Land Equivalent Ratio Jharkhand Maize + pigeonpea (3) Jharkhand Groundnut + pigeonpea (3) Jharkhand Rice + pigeonpea (4) Maharastra Pearl millet + pigeonpea (8) Maharastra Sunflower + pigeonpea (7) Andhra Pradesh Groundnut + pigeonpea (7) Karnataka Groundnut + pigeonpea (5) Karnataka Finger millet + pigeonpea (5) Intercropping system is stable with pigeonpea Figures in parentheses are years of on-farm trials in Operational Research Project Potential of replacement of dryland crops with other high production/value crops and diversification of agriculture

Farming systemPeriod (years) Benefit : cost ratio Agri-horticulture Silvi-pastoral Silvi-agriculture (with castor intercrop) Agro-forestry (with sorghum + pigeonpea) Arable farming11.34 Benefit-cost ratio under different land use systems at Hyderabad