India in 2050: Food Security through Water Security

Recognizing the vital role that water security plays in securing lives and livelihoods, this article raises significant questions, which point to formulating policy and taking action that encourage small-holder farmers to contribute to food sufficiency…“Little drops of water make a mighty ocean”

I ndia’s per capita food grain availability has gone down since 1991 even though there has been a net addition of about 60 million hectares to agricultural land during the last half of the 20th century. Food production has gone up—rice production by about 350 per cent and wheat production by more than 800 per cent. The production of millets and pulses has, however, gone down to give space to wheat and rice.

With a largely rural (70 per cent) and agrarian (60 per cent) population, the state of agriculture and, more broadly, the state of the farm sector impacts the livelihoods of people hugely. The poor state of the agricultural sector is the main cause of rural poverty in India. Three-fourths of the rural poor depend on mono-cropped ‘rain-fed’ farming, a highly uncertain enterprise.

The productivity as well as the value of farm output in rain-fed regions is well below the sustainable potential and the national average although over half the region is sub-humid with over 900 mm of rainfall. Beyond some pockets, farming in rain-fed areas is mostly at subsistence levels. A very small fraction of the farmers produce enough to feed their families. Table 1 captures the trends of availability of food in the country.