Agricultural Water Footprint and Precision Management

Overexploitation of limited freshwater resources has resulted from the increasing food demand and faster economic development in India and the world as well. Changes in climatic conditions and contamination of freshwater bodies have made freshwater resources scarce. When compared to domestic and industrial use, agriculture becomes the leading sector in terms of water footprint (WF). Reducing WF in agriculture is a more difficult task, particularly with irrigated crops, and it becomes a critical component of water management, especially in moisture‐stressed or drought‐prone areas. India has the highest freshwater demand for agriculture in the world, accounting for 91% of total water use, versus 4% for industry and 5% for domestic use. However, Water scarcity has emerged as the most significant constraint to crop production, particularly in arid and semi‐arid agro‐ecologies. Water supply per capita in India has decreased from 5177 m 3 in 1951 to 1441 m 3 in 2015 and is projected to decrease further to 1174 m 3 by 2050. As a result, since India is a water‐stressed nation, it requires innovative agricultural practices and policies to significantly reduce WF. In comparison to other crops, cereal crop production needed more than half of the total available water for agriculture. This increase in WF in cereals may be due to higher evapotranspiration demands combined with higher‐yielding efficiency. In this context, a well‐designed precision water management system is critical for maintaining cereal, commercial crop, and horticultural crop production while improving product quality. To reduce WFs, the precise use of usable water supplies is important. Precision water management, which includes the judicious use of water through sensors and micro‐irrigation strategies, is essential for ensuring the long‐term sustainability of water supplies. It also means that high‐quality water is applied precisely at the right time, in the right place, and at the right stage of crop development, but uniformly across the chosen area. Sensor‐based micro‐irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, image irrigation, and tissue irrigation may be used to achieve precision. Low‐cost agronomic practices such as scheduling irrigation, conservation agriculture, alternative wetting and drying, direct‐seeded rice (DSR), and mulching are examples of precision irrigation management. As a result, having a comprehensive understanding of WFs in