A recently released analysis points to a decade-long expansion of rice cultivation across Telangana as a driver of mounting pressure on the state's irrigation supplies, electricity, and related resources — even as authorities have advised farmers to scale back paddy planting this rabi season over concerns about available water.
In a paper titled 'From Pump to Plate: Rice, Water, Power and Telangana's Road to Water Bankruptcy', agricultural scientist GV Ramanjaneyulu traced the interlocking relationships among paddy cultivation, water use, electricity demand, rice consumption trends, export volumes, and greenhouse gas output.
Telangana's rice-growing footprint expanded by 32.7 lakh hectares across the ten years leading up to the present. Across the decade examined, newly cultivated paddy land drew between 138 and 173 tmc of irrigation water each year, according to the study's findings, with that expanded acreage also linked to rising greenhouse gas output.
Supplying water to that broader cultivated footprint would demand somewhere between 3.9 and 4.9 billion cubic metres each year, the analysis found, a figure derived from per-season irrigation needs of 1,200 to 1,500 millimetres once naturally occurring rainfall has been factored out. Around 138 to 173 tmc of water flows through the system on an annual basis.
Per acre of paddy cultivation, the research puts greenhouse gas output at 2.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for each harvest cycle. Growing paddy on the same plot through two harvests per year carries the potential to push total greenhouse-gas output to 5.6 tonnes annually. Greenhouse gas output from rice cultivation arrives through two distinct pathways: waterlogged paddies generate methane as they sit submerged, and the energy drawn by pumps and water-lifting equipment to keep fields irrigated adds another layer of carbon emissions.
Findings in the document draw a direct line between how much water farmland requires and how much power that demand pulls from the grid. Pumping high volumes of water through lift irrigation networks places a heavy draw on available electricity supplies. Projections place the power draw for moving 2 tmc of water per day at just under 5,000 MW, with that figure climbing past 7,000 MW should the daily volume reach 3 tmc. Pumping water from underground aquifers draws heavily on electricity, and that demand climbs further as aquifer levels drop.
The research draws attention to water use that goes untracked within rice as a food product — demand that persists well past the point of harvest. Daily rice intake among city dwellers — counting rice-derived products alongside whole-grain servings — falls within a band of roughly 240 to 260 grams, according to available estimates. Producing one kilogram of milled rice requires somewhere between 2,100 and 2,500 litres of water, a demand that connects the routine plate of rice on an urban table to a persistent, largely invisible draw on the water channelled through agricultural irrigation systems.
Those findings add weight to the argument for moving away from paddy cultivation and broadening the agricultural mix, yet specialists noted that any such shift would take time to materialise. Ramanjaneyulu stated that financial incentives would be needed to draw farmers away from paddy cultivation.
Paddy acreage fell by around 11 lakh acres during a season that had already seen below-average rainfall, a combination that reflects how deeply rooted farmers' attachment to familiar crops tends to be. He noted that the problem of farm distress was one that warranted attention well before it reached its current state.
Those with knowledge of agricultural policy and rural advocacy noted that pushing farmers toward an immediate departure from paddy cultivation — absent proper groundwork, financial incentives, or structural backing — carries a real possibility of worsening hardship in farming communities. Donthi Narasimha Reddy, who campaigns on environmental issues, argued that placing last-minute restrictions on farmers' cultivation would deepen the strain felt across rural communities, and called on authorities to hold industrial water users to the same standard of conservation. Reddy also urged the relevant parties to establish solar energy installations as a power source.
