Water scarcity has become a significant obstacle to agricultural production in India. Agriculture in India relies to a great extent on resources for which water availability is becoming a considerable burden and is more or less characterized by increasing variability. It attempts to understand the association between the availability of water and agricultural productivity while focusing heavily on a range of aspects namely the influence of irrigation dependency, depletion of groundwater resources, variability of rainfall along with state-wise differences among various farmers regarding access to water resources. This paper investigates how water scarcity impacts yield, cropping intensity, net farm income and agricultural productivity based on statistics provided by official records, water resource assessment documents as well as scientific papers. The results show how the availability of deficient and unreliable resources reduce the overall productivity, primarily by shortening the cultivable land, reducing the crops available and increasing the exposure of farmers towards rainfall variability. Such an impact seems more acute and significant in the parts of India which are heavily dependent on groundwater irrigation. Deep well drilling is another increasing threat of water exhaustion, to be sustained in the future from the farmers which will increase pumping cost and will reduce water productivity. However, this can be tackled if we utilize irrigation water efficiently by introducing Micro irrigation techniques, water Harvesting system, efficient water management policies, by enhancing crops that consumes less water by promoting adequate use of water efficient crops as well as other techniques with reference to crops.
Amarasinghe, Upali A., et al. Benefiting from Groundwater: A Resource Management Challenge. International Water Management Institute, 2005. Barker, Randolph, and François Molle. Evolution of Irrigation in South and Southeast Asia. Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, Working Paper 5, International Water Management Institute, 2004. Birthal, Pratap S., et al. “Water Productivity of Major Crops in India: An Analysis across States.” Agricultural Economics Research Review, vol. 27, no. 2, 2014, pp. 199–208. Central Ground Water Board. Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2023. Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India, 2023. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture: Managing Systems at Risk. FAO, 2011. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAOSTAT: Crops and Livestock Products. FAO, 2022. Gandhi, Vasant P., and N. V. Namboodiri. Groundwater Irrigation in India: Gains, Costs and Risks. Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, 2009. Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2023. Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 2023. Government of India, Ministry of Jal Shakti. Annual Report 2022–23. Ministry of Jal Shakti, 2023. Government of India, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India, 2019. National Statistical Office, 2019. Jain, Meha, et al. “Groundwater Depletion Will Reduce Cropping Intensity in India.” Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 9, 2021, eabd2849. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd2849. Kayatz, Benjamin, et al. “‘More Crop per Drop’: Exploring India’s Cereal Water Use since 2005.” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 673, 2019, pp. 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.304. Kuppannan, Palanisami, et al. “Estimating Technical and Irrigation Water Productivities in Rice Production in Tamil Nadu, India.” Irrigation and Drainage, vol. 66, no. 2, 2017, pp. 163–172. https://doi.org/10.1002/ird.2099. Molden, David, et al. “Improving Agricultural Water Productivity: Between Optimism and Caution.” Agricultural Water Management, vol. 97, no. 4, 2010, pp. 528–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2009.03.023. Mukherji, Aditi, and Tushaar Shah. “Groundwater Socio-Ecology and Governance: A Review of Institutions and Policies in Selected Countries.” Hydrogeology Journal, vol. 13, 2005, pp. 328–345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-004-0429-7. Nagaraj, N., and B. Anitha. “Impact of Micro Irrigation on Groundwater Savings, Productivity, and Profitability of Principal Crops in the Eastern Dry Zone and Central Dry Zone of Karnataka: A Resource Economic Analysis.” Agricultural Economics Research Review, vol. 35, no. 1, 2022, pp. 57–69. https://doi.org/10.5958/0974-0279.2022.00005.2. NITI Aayog. Composite Water Management Index: A Tool for Water Management. Government of India, 2018. Rajput, T. B. S., and Neelam Patel. “Potential of Micro-Irrigation for Enhancing the Water Productivity in Field Crops in India: An Overview.” Indian Journal of Agronomy, vol. 57, no. 3s, 2012, pp. 186–194. Rodell, Matthew, Isabella Velicogna, and James S. Famiglietti. “Satellite-Based Estimates of Groundwater Depletion in India.” Nature, vol. 460, no. 7258, 2009, pp. 999–1002. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08238. Shah, Tushaar. Taming the Anarchy: Groundwater Governance in South Asia. Resources for the Future, 2009. Sharma, Bharat R., et al. “Estimating the Potential of Rainfed Agriculture in India: Prospects for Water Productivity Improvements.” Agricultural Water Management, vol. 97, no. 1, 2010, pp. 23–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2009.08.002. Scott, Christopher A., et al. “The Water–Energy–Food Nexus: A Complex Adaptive Approach.” The Water–Energy–Food Nexus: A New Approach in Support of Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture, edited by B. R. et al., Springer, 2015. Sunitha, S., et al. “More Crop per Drop – Experience in Cassava.” Indian Horticulture, vol. 64, no. 2, 2019. World Bank. Deep Wells and Prudence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India. World Bank, 2010.
Keywords
Cite this Article
Hilal, A. (2026). Water Scarcity and Agricultural Productivity in India. The Business and Economic Research, 1(1), 43-55.
Abeeta Hilal "Water Scarcity and Agricultural Productivity in India." The Business and Economic Research, vol. 1, no. 1, 2026, pp. 43-55.
Abeeta Hilal. 2026. "Water Scarcity and Agricultural Productivity in India." The Business and Economic Research 1, no. 1: 43-55.
Citation generated automatically. Please verify formatting before use.
Licensing
© 2026 The Author(s). The Author(s) retain copyright of their work. Published by The Business and Economic Research.
All articles published in The Business and Economic Research are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This licence permits anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to the full text, and reuse or adapt the published work for any lawful purpose, including commercial use, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the Creative Commons licence is provided, and any changes made to the original work are indicated.
The authors grant The Business and Economic Research the right of first publication and a non-exclusive licence to publish, reproduce, distribute, display and archive the article in all formats and media. Authors retain all copyright and other rights in their work.
Authors are permitted to share and deposit their accepted manuscript and published article in institutional repositories, subject repositories, personal websites and other lawful repositories, provided that the original publication in The Business and Economic Research is properly acknowledged and the article is linked to the official published version where possible.
The full terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/