Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

Does India Need a Different Rice Ecosystem to Harness the Export Advantages and Manage the Virtual Water Exports?


Affiliations
1 ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi 110 012, India
2 Samara University, PO Box 132, Samara 7240, Ethiopia
 

The present study assessed the virtual water trade and comparative advantages in rice exports. It suggests realigning the Indian rice ecosystem based on the demand–supply gap, groundwater exploitation, productivity growth and untapped productivity potential. It also advocates the phased shifting of acreage under common (non-basmati) rice production to potential regions identified as suitable. The proposed shifting of cultivation will lead to achieving a sustainable rice ecosystem, conserving the natural resource base and reducing risk in terms of environmental and economic factors. Emerging practices such as dry direct-seeded rice, and the system of rice intensification could be effectively used for sustainable rice ecosystem in India.

Keywords

Comparative Advantage, Rice, Sustainable Cultivation, Virtual Water Exports.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Chapagain, A. K., Hoekstra, A. Y. and Savenije, H. H. G., Water saving through international trade of agricultural products. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 2006, 10(3), 455–468.
  • Chapagain, A. K. and Hoekstra, A. Y., The global component of freshwater demand and supply: an assessment of virtual water flows between nations as a result of trade in agricultural and industrial products. Water Int., 2008, 33(1), 19–32.
  • Hoekstra, A. Y. and Chapagain, A. K., The water footprints of Morocco and the Netherlands: global water use as a result of domestic consumption of agricultural commodities. Ecol. Econ., 2007, 64(1), 143–151.
  • Liu, J., Zehnder, A. J. and Yang, H., Historical trends in China’s virtual water trade. Water Int., 2007, 32(1), 78–90.
  • Han, W. S., Graham, J. P., Choung, S., Park, E., Choi, W. and Kim, Y. S., Local-scale variability in groundwater resources: Cedar Creek Watershed, Wisconsin, USA. J. Hydro-Environ. Res., 2018, 20, 38–51.
  • Hoekstra, A. Y., Human appropriation of natural capital: a comparison of ecological footprint and water footprint analysis. Ecol. Econ., 2009, 68(7), 1963–1974.
  • Dalin, C., Wada, Y., Kastner, T. and Puma, M. J., Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade. Nature, 2017, 543(7647), 700–704.
  • Biewald, A., Rolinski, S., Lotze-Campen, H., Schmitz, C. and Dietrich, J. P., Valuing the impact of trade on local blue water. Ecol. Econ., 2014, 101, 43–53.
  • Paroda, R. S., Strategy for doubling farmers’ income. Int. J. Life Sci., 2018, 8, 128–140.
  • Brindha, K., International virtual water flows from agricultural and livestock products of India. J. Clean. Prod., 2017, 161, 922–930.
  • Aeschbach-Hertig, W. and Gleeson, T., Regional strategies for the accelerating global problem of groundwater depletion. Nature Geo-sci., 2012, 5, 853–861.
  • Kumar, V. and Jain, S. K., Status of virtual water trade from India. Curr. Sci., 2007, 93(8), 1093–1099.
  • Balassa, B., Tariff protection in industrial countries: an evaluation. J. Polit. Econ., 1965, 73(6), 573–594.
  • Silverman, B. W., Density Estimation for Statistics and Data Analysis, Chapman and Hall, London, UK, 1986, pp. 1–176.
  • Khanna, S. S., Agro-climatic regions/zones in India, natural resources. Planning Commission, Government of India, 1989; http://apps.iasri.res.in/agridata/19data/chapter1/db2019tb1_2.pdf (accessed on 15 July 2021).
  • OECD, Water risk hotspots for agriculture, In OECD Studies on Water, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Publishing, Paris, France, 2017, pp. 32–40.
  • ICRIER, Getting Punjab agriculture back on high growth path: sources, drivers and policy lessons. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, 2017, pp. 1–51.
  • SreeVidhya, K. S. and Elango, L., Temporal variation in export and import of virtual water through popular crop and livestock products by India. Groundw. Sustain. Dev., 2019, 8, 468–473.
  • Suresh, A., Technical change and efficiency of rice production in India: a Malmquist total factor productivity approach. Agric. Econ. Res. Rev., 2013, 26, 109–118.
  • ICRIER, Water productivity mapping of major Indian crops. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, 2018, p. 24.
  • NRRI, Eco-regional rice farming for enhancing productivity, profitability and sustainability. In National Rice Research Institute Research Bulletin No. 22, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India, 2020.
  • Mahajan, G., Gill, M. S. and Singh, K., Optimizing seed rate to suppress weeds and to increase yield in aerobic direct-seeded rice in northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains. J. New Seeds, 2010, 11(3), 225–238.
  • Gathala, M. K., Kumar, V., Sharma, P. C., Saharawat, Y. S., Jat, H. S., Singh, M. and Ladha, J. K., Optimizing intensive cereal-based cropping systems addressing current and future drivers of agricultural change in the northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 2013, 177, 85–97.
  • Islam, S. et al., Conservation agriculture based sustainable intensification: increasing yields and water productivity for smallholders of the Eastern Gangetic Plains. Field Crops Res., 2019, 238, 1–17.
  • Haldar, S., Honnaiah, T. B. and Govindaraj, G. N., System of rice intensification (SRI) method of rice cultivation in West Bengal (India): an economic analysis, In International Association of Agricultural Economists, Triennial Conference, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 2012, pp. 1–25.
  • Sinha, S. K. and Talati, J., Productivity impacts of the system of rice intensification (SRI): a case study in West Bengal, India. Agric. Water Manage., 2007, 87(1), 55–60.
  • Soman, P., Evaluation of the performance of aerobic rice using drip irrigation technology under tropical conditions. Int. J. Agric. Sci. Res., 2018, 10(10), 6040–6043.

Abstract Views: 277

PDF Views: 163




  • Does India Need a Different Rice Ecosystem to Harness the Export Advantages and Manage the Virtual Water Exports?

Abstract Views: 277  |  PDF Views: 163

Authors

Raka Saxena
ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi 110 012, India
M. S. Raman
ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi 110 012, India
Shivendra K. Srivastava
ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi 110 012, India
Md Arshad Khan
Samara University, PO Box 132, Samara 7240, Ethiopia
Rohit Kumar
ICAR-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, New Delhi 110 012, India

Abstract


The present study assessed the virtual water trade and comparative advantages in rice exports. It suggests realigning the Indian rice ecosystem based on the demand–supply gap, groundwater exploitation, productivity growth and untapped productivity potential. It also advocates the phased shifting of acreage under common (non-basmati) rice production to potential regions identified as suitable. The proposed shifting of cultivation will lead to achieving a sustainable rice ecosystem, conserving the natural resource base and reducing risk in terms of environmental and economic factors. Emerging practices such as dry direct-seeded rice, and the system of rice intensification could be effectively used for sustainable rice ecosystem in India.

Keywords


Comparative Advantage, Rice, Sustainable Cultivation, Virtual Water Exports.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv124%2Fi4%2F407-413