Crop Water Requirement, Water Productivity and Comparative Advantage of Crop Production in Different Regions of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The growing physical water scarcity would further hamper the food security. Over the past few years, the concept of water productivity in agriculture has gained ground with a shift from land productivity to water productivity due to increasing shortage of irrigation water productivity. The objective of the study was to estimate consumptive water use and agronomic water productivity for different crops grown in different regions of Uttar Pradesh and to identify the regions for comparative advantage of crop production based on water productivity and crop yield. The study was based on the secondary data and it was collected from different sources. The Crop Wat model was used for estimation of consumptive water requirement for crop production. The results showed that among kharif crops, highest crop water requirement was found for paddy crop in Bundelkhand region, whereas minimum crop water requirement was observed for jowar in Western region. In rabi season, highest crop water requirement was estimated for wheat crop in Bundelkhand region and minimum water requirement was estimated for barley crop in Western region. Almost all kharif crops were depicting comparative advantage from water productivity point of view in Eastern region, while among these crops most of the crops were depicting comparative advantage from yield point of view in Central region. Gram and sesamum has comparative advantage in Eastern region, soybean in central region, moong (k) in Bundelkhand region and maize (k), wheat, barley, pea and beans, lentil, rapeseed-mustard, maize (z) and sugarcane in western region from both water productivity and crop yield point of view.