Quenching Climate Needs
Significance of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) for climate-resilient farming and farmers’ income in Bihar
PCI India looks forward to closing the technology and gender gap to promote livelihoods in India and works at the intersection of climate change, women’s economic empowerment and nutrition security. With a successful trial on Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) method, involving 2,700 marginal & small women farmers in Haryana, that reduced greenhouse gas emission in paddy by around 30% while increasing yield by over 20%, PCI India is looking at partnership support for a scaled implementation of AWD in Bihar.
A State of Paddy Farming
Agriculture in Bihar, dominated by paddy cultivation, is highly water-intensive and vulnerable to both droughts and floods. The state’s estimated 3.2 million hectares of rice area consumes nearly 70% of total irrigation water, most of it sourced from shallow & fast depleting aquifers. In this context, AWD irrigation technique allows rice fields to dry intermittently instead of continuous flooding. Hence, AWD offers a practical and scalable pathway for climate-resilient and resource-efficient farming.
AWD qualifies as a simple, farmer friendly water and emission saving method. The method has been tested and vetted through field trials by ICAR and IRRI across eastern India, demonstrating successfully that AWD can reduce irrigation water use by 25–30% without compromising yields. Given Bihar’s annual paddy water requirement of roughly 1,200 mm, AWD could save nearly approximately 5 billion cubic metres of groundwater annually, even if adopted in half the state’s rice area. Avoiding regular inundation, AWD zeroes down methanogens, which are anaerobic archaea (microbes), that ultimately reduces methane emissions by 30% to 50%.
Financial Gains
Economic benefit of AWD is derived directly from reduced use of diesel or electricity for pumping water. Standard reduction of energy up to 20% to 30% for pumping water means saving of INR 3,000 to INR 5,000 per hectare in energy costs alone. Combined with efficient fertilizer use and lower lodging losses, net farm income can be increased by 10% to 15%. For Bihar’s estimated 2.5 million small and marginal farmers, most of whom are women, the overall annual savings could mean up to INR 1200 crores.
Convergence and Partnership Approach
PCI India seeks to take the successful Haryana model to Bihar and is looking towards government and industry support for converting large rice belts into AWD fields. The pilot programs under Bihar Agriculture University and ATMA have demonstrated AWD’s success in the districts of Nalanda and Rohtas. With a curated model involving training packages for farmers, MIS and measurement systems on economic benefits with emission reduction; PCI can successfully accelerate adaptation to scale by leveraging Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, JEEViKA CLF & SHG platforms and FPOs.
PCI India and all successful trials in the country have proved that AWD is cost effective, energy efficient and livelihood enhancement method necessary for livelihood & nutrition security against increasing threat of climate change in Bihar and India.
The author is Shantamay Chatterjee, Director – Livelihood, Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) at PCI India