Agriculture in India is one of the largest contributors to the GDP. Agriculture consumes about 25% of the total sold electricity in India. In the last few years, electricity-crop index (MWh/ton) is increasing drastically leading to inefficient usage of electricity. India also uses about 5%-8% of diesel sold in the country for water pumping. In the process, crucial foreign revenue is lost coupled and carbon is emitted to the environment. In the last two decades, electricity consumption in agriculture has grown more than the food and population growth. India's water use efficiency is one of the lowest among the leading agriculture countries. It is high time for the corrective policy level measures and strict action should be taken. Otherwise soon agriculture will be a cursed child by all the line departments especially electricity and ground water departments. Policy level measures may be taken in terms of 1. Improvement in the pumping system 2. Usage of renewable energy in agriculture 3. Develop of cost effective precision irrigation and remote irrigation so that small farmers can irrigate at a lesser cost 4. Include a component of efficient pumping system in the Watershed programs. 5. Provide incentives to the farmers for usage of efficient measures 6. Account the electricity usage in agriculture 7. Encourage use of solar power in pumping the water instead of diesel. 8. Integrate the efforts of different line departments 9. Restrict the manufacturing of unbranded non ISI pumping systems. 10. Sensitize and strengthen of academic and extension Institutions.

1. Agriculture-Power-Water
woes in India
Parameshwar Hegde
h.parameshwar@gmail.com

2. Indian Agriculture statistics
Crops Area (million ha)
Production
(million ton)
Electricity
consumption
(billion kWh)
Food 128 260 95
Commercial 44 103 13
Horticulture 24 269 19
Grand Total 196 622 129
Source: planningcommission.gov.in/sectors/agri_html/selagri/T1.27.xls
18 million
electrified pump
sets & 7 million
diesel pump sets

3. Declining Indices – a concern
Electricity-Area Index (MWh/ha) 2.30
Electricity-Crop Index (MWh/ton) 0.51
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
1982-83
1983-84
1984-85
1985-86
1986-87
1987-88
1988-89
1989-90
1990-91
1991-92
1992-93
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Electricity-Crop index
Electricity-…
Note: Estimated

4. Resources Foot print in
agriculture - India
Crops India
Wheat 1,654
Rice 2,850
Sugarcane 159
Cotton 18,694
Milk 1,369
Eggs 7,531
Chicken 7,736
Crops India
Rice 1,894
Wheat 2,088
Sugarcane 823
Cotton 1,412
Horticultural
crops
391
(kWh/ton)(Lit/kg)
Source: Water Scarcity And Security In India, Dr. N.G.Hegde
Note: Estimated

5. Worldwide comparison of
indices
Countries
Crop-Energy
Index
(ton/MWh)
Energy-Area
index (ha/MWh)
Energy-water
index in
agriculture
(cu.m/MWh)
Water
productivity in
agriculture (US
$/cu.m.)
India 0.51 2.30 4,359 0.57
China 0.19 1.66 4,103 1.96
Brazil 0.16 5.80 2,163 3.72
South Africa 0.47 3.77 1,396 1.25
United States
of America
0.29 5.24 1,679 0.92
Germany 0.16 16.81 923 4.27
Italy 0.27 1.94 3,751 2.08
Spain 0.31 1.52 4,416 1.59
Canada 0.19 13.74 502 3.85
Russia 0.25 3.68 806 5.45
Note: Indices are estimated
base data availed from http://www.nationmaster.com, FAO statistics 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org

6. Population-Food grain-
Electricity consumption
Year
Electricity
Consumption for
Agricultural Purposes
('000 GWh)
Area under
agriculture (million
ha)
Agriculture
production (million
ton)
Population
(crore)
1982-83 21 125.10 129.52 68.3
1983-84 25 131.16 152.37 69.9
1984-85 30 126.67 145.54 71.6
1985-86 33 128.02 150.44 73.3
1986-87 35 127.20 143.42 75.1
1987-88 39 119.69 140.35 76.9
1988-89 44 127.67 169.92 78.7
1989-90 48 126.77 171.04 80.6
1990-91 49 127.84 176.39 82.5
1991-92 53 121.87 168.38 84.6
1992-93 59 123.15 179.48 86.4
1993-94 63 122.75 184.26 88.3
1994-95 63 123.86 191.50 90.2
1995-96 67 121.01 180.42 92.1
1996-97 73 123.58 199.44 94.1
1997-98 77 123.85 192.26 96.1
1998-99 77 125.17 203.61 98.2
1999-00 81 123.10 209.80 100.3
2000-01 88 121.05 196.81 102.8
2001-02 92 122.78 212.85 104.5
2002-03 91 113.86 174.77 106.2
2003-04 95 123.45 213.19 108.0
2004-05 102 120.00 198.36 109.8
2005-06 106 121.60 208.60 111.6
2006-07 105 123.71 217.28 113.4
2007-08 109 124.07 230.78 115.3
2008-09 117 122.83 234.47 117.2
2009-10 121 121.33 218.11 119.1
2010-11 119 125.73 241.57 121.0

7. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Food production - Area - Electricity consumption
Electricity Consumption for Agricultural Purposes ('000 GWh) Area under agriculture (million ha)
Agriculture production (million ton) Population (crore)

8. Year
Annual change in
electricity
consumption (%)
Annual change in
food production
(%)
1982-83
1983-84 16% 18%
1984-85 19% -4%
1985-86 13% 3%
1986-87 6% -5%
1987-88 10% -2%
1988-89 13% 21%
1989-90 9% 1%
1990-91 3% 3%
1991-92 7% -5%
1992-93 11% 7%
1993-94 7% 3%
1994-95 1% 4%
1995-96 5% -6%
1996-97 10% 11%
1997-98 6% -4%
1998-99 0% 6%
1999-00 4% 3%
2000-01 9% -6%
2001-02 5% 8%
2002-03 0% -18%
2003-04 3% 22%
2004-05 8% -7%
2005-06 4% 5%
2006-07 -1% 4%
2007-08 3% 6%
2008-09 7% 2%
2009-10 4% -7%
2010-11 -1% 11%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29
Food production & electricity
consumption change pattern
Annual change in food
production (%)
Annual change in
electricity consumption
(%)

9. Population-Food grain-Electricity
Decade wise summary
Year
Populatio
n (million)
Foodgrain
productio
n (million
tons)
Electricity
to
agricultur
e (billion
kWh)
Irrigated
area
(million
ha)
Growth %
Population Food grain
Electricity
to
agriculture
Irrigated
area
1990-91 846 175 50 63
1995-96 937 185 86 71
2000-01 1,028 195 85 78 22% 11% 68% 24%
2005-06 1,119 208 90 82
2010-11 1,210 245 119 85 18% 26% 41% 9%
68%
41%

10. ◦ Electricity consumption in
agri is increasing much faster
than the population, food
production and irrigated
area.
 Decrease in Energy use efficiency
 Reasons
 Increased inefficiency in the
pumping system
 Depleting water table
 Indiscriminate use of
electricity because of
subsidy
◦ Low water use efficiency
◦ Average power cost in India -
3.6 ` / kWh
◦ Realization from agriculture-
1.2 `/kWh
◦ 42,000 ` spent from
government towards
electricity to agri
◦ Domestic and commercial
sectors facing acute power
shortage
◦ Approx. 1.8K ` is spent on
each ton of production, but
market value of crop is 9K-
35K ` per ton
◦ Depleting water table posing
threat of unviable agriculture