Groundwater Depletion Could Hurt India’s Crops and Farmers
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India is the world’s second-largest producer of wheat and rice and is home to more than 600 million farmers.
The country has achieved impressive gains in food production since the 1960s, due in part to an increased reliance on irrigation wells, which allowed Indian farmers to expand production into the mostly dry winter and summer seasons.
But those gains have come at a cost: The country that produces 10% of the world’s crops is now the world’s largest consumer of groundwater, and aquifers are rapidly becoming depleted across much of India.
