Climate researchers have discovered that excess irrigation over northern India shifts the September monsoon rainfall towards the north-western part of the subcontinent increases widespread weather extremes over Central India. These meteorological hazards expose the vulnerable farmers and their crops to risks of failure. The study which establishes that monsoon precipitation is sensitive to the choice of irrigation practices in South Asia, can help plan agricultural practices in this region.
South Asia is one of the most heavily irrigated regions of the world, largely using groundwater, and its major summer crop is paddy which is cultivated in water flooded fields. Hence it was pertinent to study how such practices can influence the monsoons which form the fulcrum of this agro-based economy.
The research published in the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’ recently showed that monsoon precipitation is sensitive to the choice of irrigation practices in South Asia. Another finding obtained from this study was extreme rainfall in recent decades in Central India has been increasing, and this is also caused by an increase in irrigation and consequent increase in evapo-transpiration (the sum of evaporation from the land surface plus transpiration from plants).
