Trends in water requirements of wheat crop under projected climates in India

Abstract

Various global circulation models predict a change in net irrigation requirements worldwide due to the impacts of climate change and in India, depending upon the region, irrigation requirements are likely to change by different magnitudes. The spatial distribution of trend in crop and irrigation water requirements of wheat projected for two climatic periods (2021-50 and 2051-80) across major wheatgrowing districts of the country were analyzed, making use of climate change projection data from NorESM1-M model of the CMIP5 in combination with RCP 4.5. Decreasing trends in water requirements were projected over 90 per cent of wheat growing districts in 2021-50, whereas increasing trends in crop and irrigation water requirement are expected over 95.4 per cent and 62.4 per cent areas, respectively in 2051-80 climatic periods. Results showed that decreasing/increasing trends projected in water requirements of wheat crop is due to change in crop growing period, which is projected to decrease across entire wheat growing area in 2021-50, whereas it is likely to increase over 78.2 per cent in 2051-80 climatic periods.