technology/case studies/Cheap energy endangers India's ability to feed itself

The northern Indian state of Punjab is the country’s historic breadbasket,farmers are emptying Punjab’s aquifers at an alarming rate. Each year, as the groundwater table steadily retreats, they are forced to go half a meter deeper to pump water.  If cultivation continues here as it has, the groundwater—the source of most of Punjab’s irrigation—could be exhausted in 20 years, say researchers at Punjab Agricultural University, in Ludhiana.The situation is not unique to Punjab. Collectively, India’s farmers extract about 212 million megaliters of water each year to irrigate some 35 million hectares. That amount of water—enough to submerge London by more than 100 meters—is considerably more than what flows into the aquifers through rainfall and runoff, and plummeting water tables now plague other areas as well. Based on its aquifers’ natural rate of recharge, Punjab can sustainable support at most 1.8 million hectares of rice, according to the state’s director of agriculture. If the situation doesn’t change, a food crisis in India seems imminent.

A main culprit is grossly underpriced electricity. For decades, it’s allowed farmers to pump groundwater at very low cost. Now, not only is the water running out, but India’s electricity utilities lack the revenue to maintain their infrastructure and provide rural communities with adequate power.As farmers’ electricity use grew in Punjab, the quality, reliability, and supply of that electricity all declined. Back in the 1980s, farmers could expect 18 hours of electricity a day; now it’s at most 6 hours. And because the groundwater table has been falling at about half a meter each year, farmers actually need more energy every year to irrigate the same field. Though Punjab authorities aren’t doing the math themselves, a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that raising the 8 ML needed to irrigate one hectare of rice by an extra half meter requires at least an additional 11 kilowatt-hours each year. (That’s the energy needed to lift nearly 30 empty Airbus A-380s.) India’s Central Electricity Authority has estimated that electricity demand will outstrip supply in Punjab by as much as 28 percent this year.