The groundwater potential of the gangetic valley is on a serious decline. How may it affect the food…

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The groundwater potential of the gangetic valley is on a serious decline. How may it affect the food security of India?

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Declining groundwater in the Gangetic valley threatens India's food security by cutting irrigated wheat and rice output, removing the drought buffer and raising costs and contamination. The CGWB's 2025 assessment lists 730 over-exploited units, clustered in the north-western plain that supplies the central pool.

**Introduction**

NASA's GRACE satellites (Rodell et al., 2009) recorded north-west India losing about 109 cubic km of groundwater in 2002-08, and the CGWB's 2025 assessment still lists 730 over-exploited units, clustered in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

**Gangetic Aquifer Decline and Food Availability**

SKETCH: flow | From Aquifer Decline to Food Insecurity
- Free power, paddy MSP
- Tubewell overdraft
- Falling water table
- Costlier, scarcer irrigation
- Lower yields, procurement

1. **Rabi output at risk**: Groundwater serves over 60% of India's irrigated area, and wheat in the plains is mostly tubewell-irrigated, so falling tables cut grain output.
2. **Central pool dependence**: The north-western plain supplies much of the grain that feeds about 81 crore people under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
3. **Lost drought buffer**: Pumped water saved kharif paddy in the drought years 2009 and 2014; a depleted aquifer turns every monsoon failure into a harvest shock.

**Effects on Access, Quality and Stability of Food**

1. **Rising farm costs**: Deeper pumps and failed borewells push small farmers into debt and weaken their own food access.
2. **Contaminated food chain**: Arsenic drawn into irrigation water in Bhojpur and Buxar (Bihar) and Nadia (West Bengal) accumulates in rice.
3. **Fiscal strain**: Free farm power in Punjab subsidises pumping that lifts less water each year.

**Way Forward**

1. **Diversify crops**: Move paddy area to maize, pulses and millets, and expand rice in water-rich eastern India.
2. **Save and recharge**: Direct seeded rice, PMKSY micro-irrigation, Punjab's Subsoil Water Act, 2009, and Atal Bhujal Yojana's village water budgets.

**Conclusion**

The over-exploited share of units fell from 17.24% in 2017 to 10.80% in 2025 (CGWB), yet the Gangetic heartland stays the hotspot; managing its aquifer as a measured, shared asset is the precondition for resilient food security.

The groundwater potential of the gangetic valley is on a serious decline. How may it affect the food security of India?

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