Adopt modern agriculture techniques to save water: U R Rao

Bangalore, Apr 22 (UNI) To save water, India should first initiate modern agriculture system as inefficient irrigation system had resulted in bigger wastage of water compared to rapid urbanisation, eminent space scientist U R Rao said today.

Speaking at the Earth Day programme organised by Eco Watch here, he said there was no point in complaining about urbanisation and industrialisation was inevitable. ''We are wasting too much of water due to unscientific farming methods. Agriculture takes 70 per cent of water, while industry consumes 20 per cent. Only ten per cent is used for human consumption. Urbanisation cannot be stopped and industry has to grow. What we need to do is save water in agriculture,'' he said.

Prof Rao said Green Revolution had led to over exploitation of water resources and salination of agricultural land. ''We have 20 per cent of irrigated land in the world. What has the Green revolution brought? About 40 per cent of the irrigated land has become saline and the output has remained stagnant at an average of 1.7 tonnes per hectare. While production in irrigated land was 2.5 tonnes, it was just 0.25 tonne in rain-fed areas.'' He advocated the use of grid irrigation system where irrigation was regulated online and best utilisation was made. This had become a success in the US and India could follow it.

Prof Rao said that out of the 1.1 billion cubic metre of water available on the globe, only 2.7 per cent was fresh water and 75 per cent of this was in frozen form. However, population and water average was still good at 8000 cubic m per person, but its distribution was uneven. In India, it was 1800 cubic m and by the end of the century, it was expected to fall to 1200 cubic m, which might lead to severe water shortage. ''Water will be a bigger problem than food,'' he said.

''Only if we can use water judiciously in agriculture, we can achieve something. The people should contribute towards water harvesting and recycling. We at ISRO are saving 50 per cent of our water intake by adopting water recycling. Why can't all of us do it,'' he asked.

Eco Watch Chairman and noted film personality Suresh Heblikar said the centre was striving to create awareness to conserve Western Ghats in the State.

UNI