Impact of Water-Saving Techniques on Optimal Allocation of Resources and Agricultural Income in a River Basin of Eastern India: A Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52151/jae2024613.1855Keywords:
Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization, Water-saving irrigation method, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technique, Sprinkler irrigationAbstract
Water scarcity has become a major issue globally due to climate change and unsustainable water usage practices. As the agriculture sector is the dominant water user, water scarcity poses a high risk for global food and water security. Therefore, it is crucial to effectively manage and judiciously allocate the resources in the agricultural sector to achieve sustainable food and water security. To this, the present study was conducted to demonstrate the impacts of two water-saving irrigation methods in paddy and non-paddy crops in the Rushikulya River Basin of Eastern India. An optimization model was developed for achieving the maximum economic profit in the agricultural sector, and then solved for four different irrigation scenarios to analyze the impacts on the profits. Scenario 1 represents the current irrigation method of the area, while Scenario 2 and Scenario 3 correspond to the application of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) to paddy, and sprinkler irrigation to non-paddy crops, respectively. Scenario 4 is the combination of AWD and sprinkler irrigation in paddy and non-paddy crops, respectively. The optimization problem was solved using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The results indicated that the net annual profit for the present irrigation condition is Rs. 8135.3 million. The net annual profit increases by 10%, 12%, and 23% under Scenarios 2, 3, and 4, respectively, as compared to the present traditional irrigation practices in the study basin. It is concluded from the study that implementing multiple interventions is more effective for achieving higher crop area while getting higher economic profit as compared to individual intervention. Overall, the framework demonstrated in this study can assist the policymakers in enhancing farmers’ socio-economic condition while ensuring judicious land and water utilization and reducing the fallow lands during Rabi season under spatio-temporally varying water availability conditions.
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