Authors: G T Patle D K Singh A Sarangi Manoj Khanna
Publish Date: 2016/02/09
Volume: 136, Issue: 2, Pages: 265-279
Abstract
Groundwater irrigation and energy played an important role in increasing agricultural production and food security in India however declining groundwater levels result in an increase of energy consumption and CO2 emission for lifting water This in the future is expected to influence groundwater development and usage policy in India This study was undertaken to assess the CO2 emission from groundwater irrigation in an agriculturally dominant district Karnal of Haryana in India and to explore the possibility of reducing CO2 emission through various management alternatives This study indicates that the CO2 emission from groundwater irrigation for baseline scenario is the highest for sugarcane 93 kgCO2/ha/m followed by rice 40 kgCO2/ha/m wheat 28 kgCO2/ha/m mustard 26 kgCO2/ha/m pigeon pea 14 kgCO2/ha/m and pearl millet 4 kgCO2/ha/m However on a district level the total CO2 emission under the baseline scenario is highest for rice 140655 Mt followed by wheat 98153 Mt and sugarcane 18416 Mt Higher CO2 emissions from rice and wheat are due to more area under these crops Results also indicate that CO2 emission can be reduced by 32 by improving pump efficiency from 347 to 51 Results show that by improving irrigation efficiency in rice by 15 and in other crops by 20 over the baseline efficiency CO2 emissions can be reduced by 23 in rice and 25 in other crops By improving the pump set and irrigation efficiencies together up to the achievable level CO2 emissions can be reduced up to 48 for rice and other cropsThe authors are thankful to the Central Groundwater Board CGWB Chandigarh and Groundwater Cell Karnal Department of Agriculture and Irrigation Government of Haryana India and NBSS LUP New Delhi for providing the necessary data and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute IARI New Delhi for providing the facilities and support for this research work
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