9. Analyzing the Impact of Food-Energy-Water Nexus-Based Agricultural Patterns on Regional Water Resources

The role of agriculture is crucial in India's food, energy and water (FEW) nexus. The agricultural sector consumes 80% of the total available water. The potential utilization of agricultural residue as feedstock for biofuel has brought concerns over India's water crisis. A study was performed where the optimization model was formulated to generate a trade-off between profit earned by people engaged in biofuel production from the agriculture stage and water consumption. That study generated three cropping patterns CP₁, based on minimizing irrigation consumption; CP₂, based on optimization of ethanol production cost; CP₃, based on maximum profit earned by farmers. The current study used the hydrological model (SWAT) to compare three cropping patterns from the previous study with the region’s actual cropping pattern (Base case). The aim was to verify the trend shown in the earlier study and gain information that could be used to improve the optimization model. The Upper Bhima river basin within the Maharashtra border was used for the case study. The Upper Bhima River basin selection was made as the districts covered in this region are major sugarcane producers in Maharashtra. The SWAT model showed how the presence of different crops impacts the basin's overall evapotranspiration and thus the groundwater aquifer storage. The average annual percolation for the base case was 22.7% higher than the CP₁. The irrigation water consumption was highest for the base case; the irrigation water withdrawal was 2196 m³/ha.