Mr. Devanand Doifode will present his APS as per the detail below:
Date: 21st February 2025
Time: 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.
Venue: Conference Room No.1, C-TARA Office
APS1 Title: Operationalizing the water-energy-food nexus in irrigation at block scale, using a systems approach for drought-prone regions of Maharashtra
Supervisor: Prof. Priya Jadhav
RPC Members: Prof. Milind Sohoni, Prof. Parameshwar Udmale
Abstract:
Irrigation is one of the dominant factors among all agricultural productivity & profitability enhancement options in semi-arid regions of western India. However, irrigation demand is rising year by year, fuelled by erratic monsoon rainfall patterns, increasing demand from the population, and thus a rise in energy demand. In the year 2020-21, the agricultural sector accounted for 27.2% (1,24,691 MU) of the total electricity consumption in Maharashtra state. Water resources in the state are constrained considering irrigation and other requirements, while energy due to rising electricity tariffs, fuel costs, and infrastructure expenses make them increasingly expensive for farmers and utilities respectively. To address these issues as well as bring sustainability in resource use, the government is promoting schemes such as solar Ag feeders with day-time supply to farmers, micro-irrigation, and solar standalone pumps. The day-time supply could potentially affect the demand patterns, distribution infrastructure usage, water usage, and thereby the cost of energy to the utility.
Effective planning, and policymaking through informed decision-making is essential to ensure sustainable resource management. However, there is a lack of tools and data for such planning as an important demand of the water-energy-food nexus approach.
In the rural energy research group, a bottom-up approach quantifying crop water-energy linkages at the feeder level and below was developed as a part of various academic projects by other research scholars, and as a part of the Project on Climate Resilient Agriculture (PoCRA). Demand patterns and electrical infrastructure loading patterns at the distribution transformer level were affected due to farmer irrigation practices and agro climatic conditions were also studied.
This thesis proposes to develop a model at the block level to operationalize the water-energy-food nexus analysis. Some of the aspects to be considered are effective scale-up strategies, command area water-energy interaction, and energy-centric systems dynamics modeling (E-SDM) to project spatial and temporal scenarios.
This report covers the literature review, research design, research methodology and timeline, and concluding remarks.