Technology Supports Water Conservation and Use
By Sudhanshu Kumar: Nayanagar, Samastipur District, Bihar, India
A water crisis has gripped India’s fourth-biggest city.
The 15 million people who live in and around Bangaluru are confronting a water shortage that has led to rising costs of water amidst sharp restrictions on use and rationing of water. People are skipping work and forming lines to receive rationed supplies of what is one of the world’s most abundant resources. Yet too often there isn’t enough of it—a fact that the United Nations tries to highlight each year on March 22, which is World Water Day.
I live and work in the state of Bihar, which is more than 1,000 miles north of Bangalore. Water is plentiful in our area. We enjoy normal rains and droughts are almost nonexistent.
Yet, I worry about water conservation. As the climate continues to change, our farms are being affected in many ways. The biggest damaging effect is caused by the ‘Loo’ – hot and warm winds from the west. I’m always looking for ways to use less water without compromising yield. This strategy is essential to my farm’s productivity and the future availability of water.
My greatest ally in meeting this challenge is technology.
In my 34 years as a farmer, I’ve learned a lot about growing food. This year, I’ll raise wheat and corn as well as a wide range of fruits: bananas, guavas, strawberries, dragon fruit, sweet limes, litchi, and mangos.
I’ve also learned how much farmers can accomplish when they gain access to the best technologies, from mechanization to seed genetics.
At the center of my experience is micro-irrigation, which allows me to control the flow of water to my crops, delivering droplets in precise amounts at exactly the right time. We waste nothing due to this slow-release of water.
We aren’t just saving water, though. We’re in fact boosting yield because micro-irrigation allows us to use water when our crops need it the most.
Temperatures in our region can spike to 45 degrees Celsius (or about 113 degrees Fahrenheit). When hot winds blow, our trees and plants tend to shed fruits and flowers. That’s what crops do when they don’t have enough resources: They sacrifice some of what they have to protect the rest, like sailors who throw cargo overboard to lighten a ship during a storm.
Even then, the fruit that remains are in danger, as hot and dry weather accompanied with poor control of moisture leads to a bad seed-to-pulp ratio which can make the fruits less valuable or even worthless.
Another wonderful innovation that I was able to do on my farm is use the micro sprinkler not as an irrigation tool but as a micro climate management tool in the orchard. I did this experiment in my litchi orchard and got tremendous results. When the hot ‘Loo’ wind blows we switch on the sprinklers in my orchard. One under each tree. The result is that the sprinklers become one giant cooler. It reduces the temperature in the orchard by 3-4 degrees. It increases the humidity in the orchard during this extreme dry period. This difference is so perceptible that when one crosses the orchard or enters it one feels the sudden coolness compared to the outside. This prevents the litchi fruits from getting scorched or from cracking which is the biggest problem for this crop. In this way we can counter the adverse effect of the hottest days during the litchi season. In this we are assisted by our on farm self-uploading weather station which gives an hourly update on the mobile. Thus, letting us know in advance the weather conditions that are going to prevail so that we can plan to take counter measures. Thus, technology comes to our help over and over again.
Before micro-irrigation, I had no way to prevent these losses. My mango and litchi crops were especially vulnerable. I’d watch them wither in just a few days.
The solution was never a mystery. I always knew that it was efficient use of water. I used to dream about getting water to every plant in my field instantly. I just didn’t know how to turn this dream into a reality.
On a trip to the United States sponsored by the Department of Agriculture (USDA), I learned about micro-irrigation and how it could allow me to pump water to our trees and plants quickly and efficiently, across large fields and in the amounts necessary to help our crops hydrate to give the best results.
When I returned home, I installed a micro irrigation system. I’ve made continuous improvements, too, adding micro sprinklers under my trees in addition to drip irrigation, plus weather stations that provide real-time information, soil sensors that detect moisture and temperature, and mulch coverings that further prevents moisture loss and controls weeds.
I spend much of my time trying to share my experiences. In the last four years, more than 8,000 farmers have visited my farm to learn what technology can do for them.
My next project will involve automated fertigation, which will allow me to fertilize crops through my irrigation network. I expect that this will help me conserve another resource, lower costs, and improve yields. I’m also hoping to shift away from grains and move further into fruits, which can deliver up to ten times more income than cereal crops.
My wish list for technology includes GMOs and gene-edited seeds that promote water and fertilizer efficiency in crops along with disease control. Although my government has embraced many technologies, it has resisted these innovations in farming, which would help farmers in my region and beyond. A United Nations research group says that about half the world’s population face severe water scarcity for at least one month per year.
The cause behind Bangaluru’s current water crisis is a weak monsoon season and an unregulated withdrawal of ground water without recharging it. The once garden city of India has turned into a vast concrete jungle. Rain water harvesting to charge the ground water has to be made mandatory.
The city is called “the Silicon Valley of India” — and I hope its suffering ends soon. In the meantime, though, perhaps this hub of technology reminds us about the urgent need for judicious use of water. Urgent use of good technology for water management. For water surplus areas like ours the situation in Bengaluru should be a warning. A warning to treasure water like gold. To use technology to conserve water and use it judiciously or perish.
Sudhanshu Kumar grows maize, wheat, litchi, mangoes, bananas, and guava on 175 acres in Bihar State, India. Sudhanshu has incorporated micro irrigation, mechanization, solar powered cold storage and more on his farm, noted as the most technology advanced farmer in the state of Bihar. Sudhanshu Kumar is a member of the Global Farmer Network. This column originates at www.globalfarmernetwork.org
