Abstract
Abstract Groundwater depletion due to agricultural intensification is a major threat to water and food security in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), a critical food bowl, home to 400 million people and currently producing 135 million metric tonnes of cereals. Among the solutions proposed to address this unsustainable water consumption, crop switching has received growing attention, yet its potential to produce co-benefits or trade-offs for other dimensions of sustainability (for example, food supply and farmers’ profits) remains largely unquantified. In this study, we developed and applied a crop switching optimization model for cereals in the IGP to maximize calorie production and farmers’ profits and minimize water consumption. We found that switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghum in the Kharif (monsoon) season and from wheat to sorghum in the Rabi (winter) season could potentially reduce water consumption by 32%, improve calorie production by 39% and increase farmers’ profits by 140%. We also found that switching crops offers a larger reduction in groundwater depletion and energy savings than improving irrigation efficiency (that is, from flood to drip irrigation). Our findings demonstrate the potential for crop switching to address the multidimensional sustainability challenges of the IGP, with possible application to other regions facing similar issues.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Switching cereals could reduce water consumption by 32%.
- Taxon
- rice
Oryza sativae0 - Treatment
- switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghume0
- Outcome
- water consumptione0
- Direction
- reducee0
- Value
- 32%e0
- Setting
- Kharif (monsoon) seasone0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghum in the Kharif (monsoon) season and from wheat to sorghum in the Rabi (winter) season could potentially reduce water consumption by 32%”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop switching could improve calorie production by 39%.
- Taxon
- riceOryza sativae0
- Treatment
- switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghume0
- Outcome
- calorie productione0
- Direction
- improvee0
- Value
- 39%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghum in the Kharif (monsoon) season and from wheat to sorghum in the Rabi (winter) season could potentially reduce water consumption by 32%, improve calorie production by 39%”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop switching could increase farmers’ profits by 140%.
- Taxon
- riceOryza sativae0
- Treatment
- switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghume0
- Outcome
- farmers’ profitse0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Value
- 140%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“switching from rice to millets (pearl millet) and sorghum in the Kharif (monsoon) season and from wheat to sorghum in the Rabi (winter) season could potentially reduce water consumption by 32%, improve calorie production by 39% and increase farmers’ profits by 140%”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop switching reduced groundwater depletion more than improved irrigation efficiency.
- Taxon
- riceOryza sativat0
- Treatment
- switching cropse0
- Outcome
- groundwater depletione0
- Direction
- larger reductione0
- Comparator
- improving irrigation efficiencye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“switching crops offers a larger reduction in groundwater depletion and energy savings than improving irrigation efficiency (that is, from flood to drip irrigation)”
t0“switching from rice to millets”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop switching saved more energy than improved irrigation efficiency.
- Taxon
- riceOryza sativat0
- Treatment
- switching cropse0
- Outcome
- energy savingse0
- Direction
- larger reductione0
- Comparator
- improving irrigation efficiencye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“switching crops offers a larger reduction in groundwater depletion and energy savings than improving irrigation efficiency (that is, from flood to drip irrigation)”
t0“switching from rice to millets”
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