New Delhi (NVI): Water security in agriculture is a local problem and requires de-centralized solutions, Secretary of Department of Water Resources UP Singh said today while asserting that water recycle and re-use policy is the need of the hour.
Speaking at the national summit on ‘Investing in Future Through Sustainable Water Use Management in Agriculture’, organised by FICCI, Singh said that currently we use 90 per cent of freshwater in agriculture and irrigation.
“Without improving the water use efficiency in agriculture, all efforts of water use elsewhere will not be meaningful,” he said.
The Water Secretary said that we need to change our mindset and give emphasis on water productivity rather than just land productivity.
He added that we must focus on water footprints, like carbon footprints, and urged the industry to play more active role in the overall development of the sector.
Emphasising on the need of water conservation in agriculture, Singh said that we need to adopt water recycle, and re-use policy in agriculture sector which has provisions for mandates and incentivization.
“The more water we consume, more wastewater is generated. Many states have already started adopting this policy. You need to either mandate people or incentivize people. This kind of policy will have both mandating certain use and providing incentives,” he added.
While highlighting the environment concerns, the Water Secretary said that we must also consider revisiting the current government procurement policy which mainly focuses on wheat and rice. It is important that states and farmers must be incentivized for other crops as well. “Today, we don’t grow crops based on water endowment & topography of that particular area, he added.
