Impacts of improved irrigation application efficiency and groundwater levels on energy use for crop production in a semi-arid region of India

Irrigated agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions mainly depends on groundwater and is one of the agriculture sector's major consumers of total electrical energy consumption. Declining groundwater levels, on-farm water application losses during irrigation, and poor efficiency of pumping systems need special attention amid global concerns of severe water and energy crisis. In the current study, electricity consumption for groundwater pumping in the irrigated areas has been quantified under four scenarios (i.e., business as usual, suggested groundwater recharge to restore declined groundwater levels, and improved efficiency of water application and pumping system). As an individual intervention, replacing the existing pump sets with suitable and efficient pump sets in the study area could lead to electrical energy savings amounting to 34.6–45.2% of the current usage. Likewise, in part of the study area facing a decline in groundwater levels, it was estimated that restoring groundwater levels to the year 1990 level could help reduce the electricity consumption for groundwater pumping by 39.4% of the current demand (In the year 2020). This study indicates that there is significant scope for energy conservation through groundwater recharge, improved on-farm water application and groundwater pumping systems.