Impact of Cropping Pattern and Climatic Parameters in Lower Chenab Canal System—Case Study from Punjab Pakistan

Ahmad Mujtaba, Ghulam Nabi, Muhammad Masood, Mudassar Iqbal, Hafiz M. Asfahan, Muhammad Sultan, Faizan Majeed, Oliver Hensel and Abozar Nasirahmadi
Additional contact information
Ahmad Mujtaba: Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Ghulam Nabi: Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Muhammad Masood: Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Mudassar Iqbal: Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Hafiz M. Asfahan: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Bosan Road, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Muhammad Sultan: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Bosan Road, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Faizan Majeed: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Bosan Road, Multan 60800, Pakistan
Oliver Hensel: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany
Abozar Nasirahmadi: Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: In Pakistan, groundwater resources are depleting at an alarming rate due to intensive pumping, shifting of cropping patterns, and climate change vulnerability. The present study is aimed at investigating groundwater stress in the command area of Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) and associated branch canals. Groundwater stress is determined by considering the cropping patterns, surface water availability, groundwater levels, climatic variation, and crop water requirement (CWR) in the LCC command area. The climatic data is obtained from the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) from 1990 to 2020. The records of temporal variation in cropping patterns are obtained from the Crop Reporting Service (CRS), Directorate of Agriculture, Lahore for the 1995–2020 period and classified according to Rabi season (November to April) and Kharif season (May to October). The LCC surface water flows data and groundwater levels are collected from the Punjab Irrigation Department (PID) Lahore from 2003 to 2018 and from 1995 to 2016, respectively. The CWR is estimated using the Cropwat 8.0 model and groundwater levels are estimated using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) tool of ArcGIS software. It has been determined that Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, and Toba Tek Singh are highly groundwater stress cities having an average drawdown rate of 0.58 m/year. The surface water availability is also decreased from 7.75 to 4.81 billion cubic meters (Bm 3 ) for the Kharif season whilst 4.17 to 2.63 Bm 3 for the Rabi season. This study concluded that due to severe conditions in highly stressed areas, policy planners, decision-makers, and stakeholders should sincerely take some steps for maintaining groundwater levels either by capacity building workshops for the farmers or limiting the number of tubewells.

Keywords: cropping pattern; water stress; LCC area; surface water availability; CROPWAT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/708/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/5/708/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:5:p:708-:d:817601

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().