Known as India’s grain basket, Punjab contributes to 43% of the country’s wheat and 23% of paddy (rice) production with just 2% of its total geographical area. High demand of water for paddy and wheat has led to over exploitation of ground water in the state. Farmers are aware that ground water in the state has reached critical levels and yet continue to grow water intensive crops in the absence of viable alternatives. 

HUF’s partnership with CIPT aims to work with Punjab’s farmers through a network of cooperatives to promote adoption of water savings practices, enable access to water saving technologies and promote diversification of their crop mix. Solutions include dissemination of digital soil moisture technologies, measurement of yield improvement and input cost reduction from adoption of water smart farming practices and innovative incentives to encourage large scale adoption of conscious water practices. 

The programme will cover 100 farmer cooperatives over 250 villages. An estimated 20,000 farmers will benefit through adoption of practices on 80,000 hectares of land.