Arid AP’s Water Gains Risk Drying Up Under Cash Crop Pressures

• Farmers in Andhra Pradesh shifted from monocropping to crop diversification, with micro-irrigation reducing water use.
• Despite this, cash crops dominate due to market pressures and flawed government incentives.
• Newer ways of regulating groundwater use, like water budgeting and borewell collectives, may hold the key to addressing the issue.

Sivasankar Nakkala remembers the morning, years ago, his father asked him to leave home. After growing ragi and groundnut in drought-stricken Kadiri Pulakunta village in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, their farm had succumbed to erratic rains and plummeting groundwater.

“There was no water, no work in my village, and we couldn’t grow anything,” Nakkala recalled. “So, I moved to Bengaluru, working in a job I didn’t like.”

At 23, with a master’s degree in business, he reluctantly boarded a bus to Bengaluru, the capital of the neighbouring state of Karnataka. He traded the sun-scorched fields for the fluorescent hum of a warehouse. Work became a cycle of labelling packages and loading trucks. Each visit home revealed deepening despair — cracked earth, empty wells, and his parents’ weary faces.

But a few years later, water returned to the village, almost overnight. Nakkala’s wells brimmed and the soil in his fields softened.

Back from the brink

In 2021, India, the world’s largest groundwater user, extracted 251 billion cubic metres (bcm) of groundwater — pumping more than the United States and China, the next largest users, combined. While this massive consumption persists, drought-prone states such as Andhra Pradesh have actively explored solutions to reduce groundwater depletion.

Around 7.48 bcm of groundwater was extracted in Andhra Pradesh in 2023, which is half of what Tamil Nadu, the largest groundwater user in South India, draws. Of this total, 6.44 bcm was used by farmers for irrigation. To put it in perspective, imagine having 10 bottles of water — in Andhra Pradesh approximately 8.5 bottles would be consumed by farmlands, leaving the rest for other needs like drinking or household use.

Over a decade ago, farmers in Andhra Pradesh broke away from monocropping. Micro-irrigation spread through the area and water use plummeted.

But a six-month investigation by Mongabay India reveals these reforms have not been enough to reverse groundwater exploitation. While crop diversification has helped, cash crops still reign due to market pressures and perverse government incentives. Water-saving strategies often end up supporting more water-intensive farming. Meanwhile, unregulated access to groundwater deepens inequalities, leaving many farmers at a disadvantage.

“More farmers now have access to groundwater but an increase in usage creates a cycle where the resource remains under pressure,” says Yaragonda Venkata Mallareddy of Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre, a non-profit promoting ecological farming in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district. “It’s a bit like depositing more money into a bank account only to withdraw it at a faster rate.”

Slowing water to save it

In Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai — two of the state’s driest districts — borewells run deep. These deep, narrow wells are drilled into the ground to access groundwater reserves. At Nakkala’s farm, the well went as deep as 670 feet into the soil. As far as Nakkala could remember, it was always every farming family for themselves in their quest for water. But that began to change.

During a 2018 visit home from his warehouse job in Bengaluru, Nakkala saw local authorities clearing shrubs around a dry village tank. What seemed like routine work was part of Andhra Pradesh’s watershed initiatives — projects dating back to 1986 that built embankments, stream barriers, and runoff ponds to recharge groundwater.

“The goal was to slow down running water, allowing it to percolate into the ground,” explained organic farming group Accion Fraterna’s Mallareddy.

Vinod Kumar Vasudeva, the Collector of Anantapur, recalls a turning point in this journey that started in 2016. The district administration launched a campaign involving every level of governance.

“Officers at every level — revenue, taluk, and village — were given specific targets to ensure water stayed within their jurisdiction,” Kumar explained. “Heads of households and institutions were tasked with finding ways to capture rainwater right where it landed.”

With help from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, villagers got to work building rooftop water harvesting systems, soak pits, borewell recharge structures, and planting trees along boundaries.

It was under this scheme that Kadiri Pulakunta’s residents started clearing away thorny hedges and shrubs from the land next to Nakkala’s plot. From his field, you could see a hill behind which there was a canal fed by water from a reservoir.

As word got around, a big noisy crowd gathered up the hill to watch an excavator roar and dig through the mud. Water gushed in from the canal into the cleared scrubland next to Nakkala’s field. People clapped and whistled.

“I felt my thirst being quenched as I watched the water fill the tank,” said Nakkala, who then dived into the tank and started swimming. “The water was freezing, and I got very itchy, but that was the least of my worries.”

As the tank water soaked into the ground and fed his borewell, groundwater levels — once deep and hidden — began rising to a steady 90 feet.

Later that year, Nakkala did not even bother with a resignation letter as he packed his bags and jumped on a bus to head back to his farm, leaving behind four years of grind in Bengaluru.

Small tubes carrying water to roots cut consumption

In Anantapur and Sri Sathya Sai, long black pipes wind through fields and coil up in front yards. The Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project (APMIP) has long made drip and sprinkler systems available at steep discounts, and even free for small farmers, fueling a widespread transformation.

“Drip and sprinkler irrigation have transformed traditional farming practices,” said Raghunath Reddy, Project Director of the APMIP that promoted using trails of narrow pipes dripping water directly to plant roots, shrinking wastage. “In flood irrigation, water spreads across the field, wasting a lot of it. Drip irrigation sends just the right amount to the roots, saving 30% of water.”

Micro-irrigation has become the norm for many farmers in Andhra Pradesh, who now use it to maximise every drop of water. Since 2015, the state has over 930,000 hectares under micro-irrigation — about the size of its Sri Sathya Sai district. With an adoption rate of three in 10 hectares, Andhra Pradesh surpasses the national average of one in 10. Anantapur district leads the way, accounting for one-fifth of the state’s micro-irrigated land. Since the split of Sri Sathya Sai from Anantapur in 2022, data related to Anantapur has been inclusive of Sri Sathya Sai for the purpose of historical analyses. Additional areas under micro-irrigation dipped during the COVID pandemic years and are yet returned to pre-COVID levels.

“Flood irrigation supports one acre (about half a hectare), but with drip irrigation, farmers can cultivate two or more acres while saving water,” said APMIP’s Reddy.

Large blue plastic drums, brimming with pungent organic fertiliser, line the edge of Ramanamurthy Jonna’s farm, where banana trees sag under the weight of ripe clusters. On the ground, thin, straw-like pipes criss-cross the plot, delivering this fertiliser to the trees.

Farmers like 58-year-old Jonna owning nine acres of land in Andhra Pradesh’s drought-prone Anantapur district diversified from finger millets and monocropping groundnut to high-revenue fruit crops due to access to micro-irrigation. That shift was much needed.

In 2019, a severe drought had left Jonna without any groundnut harvest, work, or drinking water. The farmer took loans, deferred bank payments, and even pawned his wife’s gold.

Meanwhile, as of last year, the Andhra Pradesh government said it was considering subsidising micro-irrigation pipes. Additionally, the horticulture department has been offering subsidies for fruit growers, which the farmers claim cover 40-50% of fertiliser and pesticide expenses, Jonna took a chance and switched to horticulture.

Today, banana plantations sway gently in the breeze on Jonna’s farm. Thin black micro-irrigation pipes snake through the entire farmland.

“Even though finger millets need less water and grow in four months, it doesn’t match the revenue from bananas,” said Ramanamurthy Jonna, standing in his field, where banana trees are closely spaced to reduce evaporation in this arid land.

Despite diversifying into bananas and being fully invested in micro-irrigation, a dry spell last year took its toll. The large banana leaves yellowed and the fruits stunted. Jonna was left wondering — what will the next season bring?

A double-edged sword for water conservation

Despite his efforts to expand his land and diversify crops using micro-irrigation since 1999, Jonna had no choice during 2023 drought but to rely on tankers — 25 of them, each hauling 5,000 liters of water. Those efforts proved inadequate and his worst fear came to life.

“Last year’s poor harvest affected the quality of the bananas, and buyers weren’t interested,” Jonna said about his loss of Rs. six lakhs. “I keep worrying — what will happen if it doesn’t rain? What if I draw too much groundwater? Bananas require a lot of water, but this crop sustains us.”

This concern is shared by many across Andhra Pradesh, where micro-irrigation and market pressures may be inadvertently undermining efforts to conserve precious water resources. Farmers are likely to use it when available to maximize profits and create a buffer for dry periods.

Take maize, for example. The government’s 2021 ethanol policy spurred a booming market for maize as a biofuel material, luring farmers to switch from water-saving crops like ragi to more water-hungry alternatives. While maize promises higher financial returns, it comes at a significant cost: maize requires far more water than ragi.

Over the past decade, maize production in Anantapur has nearly doubled, with yields growing from 2017 to 2023 to reach 4.39 tonnes per hectare, while ragi dropped by nearly 40%.

Nakkala, the young farmer from Kadiri Pulakunta, shifted from ragi to maize, seeing major profits. Last November, he sold his maize harvest for Rs. 50,000, logging a tidy profit.

“Maize is often cultivated in areas with better access to groundwater,” said Uma Maheswari, Joint Director of Agriculture for Anantapur.

This shift is part of a growing trend with serious consequences. As more farmers switch to maize relying on micro-irrigation, the pressure on groundwater intensifies — without any boost to food security.

“Ragi requires less water, but now that I have enough water, I’ve shifted to commercial crops,” said Nakkala, as he stood right next to the brimming water tank abutting his farm.

Farmers like Nakkala embody the mindset of many in the region. Driven by economic incentives, they grow water-intensive crops, relying on micro-irrigation to make it possible — even as water resources shrink.

“If I have a borewell, I get water and so I can even grow paddy,” said Ravindra Adusumilli, director of Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN), an organisation that helps manage natural resources in India’s dry areas. “It remains a private matter with no regulation.”

This is exactly what Nakkala is now doing — preparing his land for winter rice. Unlike during maize cultivation, when pipes ran across the field, this season he plans to flood the paddies, relying on the vast lake that borders his farm. It’s a stark shift from cautious planning to a more reckless approach.

Water budgeting and borewell collectives

After being forced to quit farming due to water scarcity, Nakkala returned thanks to government measures like floodwater transfer to canals and micro-irrigation subsidies. But in his push for short-term recovery, Nakkala is overlooking the long-term health of groundwater. Could water budgeting and borewell collectives offer a more sustainable path forward?

“Despite years of intervention, we’ve been unable to stabilize water levels due to the persistent imbalance between groundwater extraction and recharge rates,” said Purushottam Reddy, a former official in the groundwater department in Anantapur.

Unregulated access to groundwater creates inequities, with wealthy farmers installing multiple borewells and gaining an unfair advantage, while smaller farmers struggle.

Some farmers, like fruit grower Jonna, ferry water from other regions, further depleting groundwater elsewhere. With ample rainfall last year, Jonna did not hire tankers. But he continued planting water-intensive bananas, hoping for a better yield that would help him recoup his losses by exporting to West Asia.

“In a good rainfall year, the extraction may reduce, but in a bad rainfall year, it exceeds the expected level,” said Reddy.

To address water scarcity, Accion Fraterna’s Mallareddy supports the idea of water budgeting. It is a bit like managing a household budget — it helps farmers track how much water they have and plan how to use it wisely, preventing them from running out or using too much.

“We calculate the groundwater available, consider rainfall, the water in tanks, the acreage, and crops grown,” Mallareddy explained. “We create a water budget and discuss it with farmers.”

Borewell collectives could be yet another measure. Groundwater is a shared resource, and overuse can deplete it. Borewell collectives could help by having farmers share a common water system, ensuring that no one takes more than their fair share. Such collectives are already operational in Anantapur district.

“Farmers connect their borewells to a common grid, distributing water equitably,” said WASSAN’s Adusumilli.

Traditional water management systems, like village tanks, can also be leveraged. In South India, these ancient systems, known as eris in Tamil Nadu and cheruvu in Andhra Pradesh, use interconnected tanks to capture rainwater, letting it flow down the landscape and recharge groundwater. Keeping these tanks maintained and filled is more important than ever.

“We can only hope to see more farmers supporting these approaches,” said Mallareddy. “Farmers understand where things are headed but they are compelled to grow water-guzzling crops because they want to earn more in the short term, regardless of what happens in the future.”

Nakkala’s fortunes may have bloomed, but there’s a real risk of his crops wilting again if he drains the groundwater by flooding his fields. For now, he will use every drop he can — until the water runs dry as it once did.

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay India. Reada the original article here)