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Rising water table: A threat to sustainable agriculture in an irrigated semi-arid region of Haryana, India

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  • Singh, Ajay
  • Krause, Peter
  • Panda, Sudhindra N.
  • Flugel, Wolfgang-Albert

Abstract

The sustainability of the rice-wheat cropping system in an irrigated semi-arid area of Haryana State (India) is under threat due to the continuous rise in the poor quality groundwater table, which is caused by the geo-hydrological condition and poor irrigation water management. About 500,000Â ha in the State are waterlogged and unproductive and the size of the waterlogged area is increasing. We analyse the hydrology and estimate seasonal net groundwater recharge in the study area. Rainfall is quite variable, particularly in the monsoon season, and the mean monthly reference evapotranspiration shows a high inter-annual variation, with values between 2.45 and 8.47Â mm/day in December and May. Groundwater recharge analysis during the study period (1989-2008) reveals that percolation from irrigated fields is the main recharge component with 57% contribution to the total recharge. An annual groundwater table rise of 0.137Â m has been estimated for the study area. As the water table has been rising continuously, suitable water management strategies such as increasing groundwater abstraction by installing more tubewells, using the groundwater conjunctively with good quality canal water, changes in cropping patterns, adoption of salt tolerant crops, changes in water-pricing policy, and matching water supply more closely with demand, are suggested to bring the water table down to a safe limit and to prevent further rising of the water table.

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  • Singh, Ajay & Krause, Peter & Panda, Sudhindra N. & Flugel, Wolfgang-Albert, 2010. "Rising water table: A threat to sustainable agriculture in an irrigated semi-arid region of Haryana, India," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 97(10), pages 1443-1451, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:97:y:2010:i:10:p:1443-1451
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    2. Singh, Ajay & Panda, Sudhindra Nath, 2012. "Development and application of an optimization model for the maximization of net agricultural return," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 267-275.
    3. Zheng, X. & Zhu, J.J. & Yan, Q.L. & Song, L.N., 2012. "Effects of land use changes on the groundwater table and the decline of Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantations in southern Horqin Sandy Land, Northeast China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 94-106.
    4. Alejandra Vilela & Luciana González-Paleo & Kathryn Turner & Kelsey Peterson & Damián Ravetta & Timothy E. Crews & David Van Tassel, 2018. "Progress and Bottlenecks in the Early Domestication of the Perennial Oilseed Silphium integrifolium , a Sunflower Substitute," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, February.
    5. Singh, Ajay, 2012. "Validation of SaltMod for a semi-arid part of northwest India and some options for control of waterlogging," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 194-202.
    6. Ren, Dongyang & Xu, Xu & Engel, Bernard & Huang, Quanzhong & Xiong, Yunwu & Huo, Zailin & Huang, Guanhua, 2019. "Hydrological complexities in irrigated agro-ecosystems with fragmented land cover types and shallow groundwater: Insights from a distributed hydrological modeling method," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 868-881.
    7. Singh, Ajay, 2016. "Managing the water resources problems of irrigated agriculture through geospatial techniques: An overview," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 2-10.
    8. Mohammed Al-Murad & Saif Uddin & Tariq Rashid & Habib Al-Qallaf & Abdullah Bushehri, 2017. "Waterlogging in Arid Agriculture Areas Due to Improper Groundwater Management—An Example from Kuwait," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-12, November.
    9. Xiong, Lvyang & Xu, Xu & Engel, Bernard & Xiong, Yunwu & Huang, Quanzhong & Huang, Guanhua, 2021. "Predicting agroecosystem responses to identify appropriate water-saving management in arid irrigated regions with shallow groundwater: Realization on a regional scale," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    10. Wichelns, Dennis & Qadir, Manzoor, 2015. "Achieving sustainable irrigation requires effective management of salts, soil salinity, and shallow groundwater," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 31-38.

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