Due to the water crisis, an impact of climate change and overexploitation, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government encourages farmers to switch from traditional water-intensive crops like rice and wheat to sugarcane, corn, pulses and other crops that need less water.
However, most farmers in the rice-growing district where water scarcity is increasing prefer not to plant other crops.
The water shortages in the country are already acute where almost half of its population faces high-to-extreme water stress. Farmers also consume almost 90% of the groundwater available.
Read the full story at BusinessWorld
More on water-scarcity in rice production:
- Improving water and nutrient management for double cropping in Cambodia
- Why sustainable water management needs more than technologies
- Research to improve water-use efficiency in rice
