Importance of snow and glacier meltwater for agriculture on the Indo-Gangetic Plain

H. Biemans (), C. Siderius, A. F. Lutz, S. Nepal, B. Ahmad, Taufiq Hassan (), W. Bloh, R. R. Wijngaard, P. Wester, A. B. Shrestha and W. W. Immerzeel
Additional contact information
H. Biemans: Wageningen University and Research
C. Siderius: Wageningen University and Research
A. F. Lutz: FutureWater
S. Nepal: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
B. Ahmad: Pakistan Agricultural Research Council
W. Bloh: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
R. R. Wijngaard: FutureWater
P. Wester: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
A. B. Shrestha: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
W. W. Immerzeel: Utrecht University

Nature Sustainability, 2019, vol. 2, issue 7, 594-601

Abstract: Abstract Densely populated floodplains downstream of Asia’s mountain ranges depend heavily on mountain water resources, in particular for irrigation. An intensive and complex multi-cropping irrigated agricultural system has developed here to optimize the use of these mountain water resources in conjunction with monsoonal rainfall. Snow and glacier melt thereby modulate the seasonal pattern of river flows and, together with groundwater, provide water when rainfall is scarce. Climate change is expected to weaken this modulating effect, with potentially strong effects on food production in one of the world’s breadbaskets. Here we quantify the space-, time- and crop-specific dependence of agriculture in the Indo-Gangetic Plains on mountain water resources, using a coupled state-of-the-art, high-resolution, cryosphere–hydrology–crop model. We show that dependence varies strongly in space and time and is highest in the Indus basin, where in the pre-monsoon season up to 60% of the total irrigation withdrawals originate from mountain snow and glacier melt, and that it contributes an additional 11% to total crop production. Although dependence in the floodplains of the Ganges is comparatively lower, meltwater is still essential during the dry season, in particular for crops such as sugar cane. The dependency on meltwater in the Brahmaputra is negligible. In total, 129 million farmers in the Indus and Ganges substantially depend on snow and glacier melt for their livelihoods. Snow and glacier melt provides enough water to grow food crops to sustain a balanced diet for 38 million people. These findings provide important information for agricultural and climate change adaptation policies in a climate change hot spot where shifts in water availability and demand are projected as a result of climate change and socio-economic growth.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0305-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nat:natsus:v:2:y:2019:i:7:d:10.1038_s41893-019-0305-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-019-0305-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().