This study was undertaken to assess the carbon dioxide emissions for different irrigation systems, in the context of growing demand for adaption of pressurised irrigation with electric pumps in South Central India.

The paper argues that water application systems under wells extracting groundwater are one of the major factors influencing climate change in the agricultural sector.

The study’s estimation includes operational energy consumption, well digging, installation and manufacturing of the irrigation system as well as the pumpsets. The analysis indicated that the energy used in pumping irrigation water made the highest contribution to total carbon dioxide emissions footprint, which ranged from 2.52 to 15.72 t/ha depending on the irrigation system. It was observed that among all the irrigation systems, the drip system gave the lowest CO2 e indicating the maximum climate change mitigation potential in the irrigation sector of selected region under wells.

[Adapted from source]