Energy use in large-scale irrigated agriculture in the Punjab province of Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan’s Indus Basin irrigation system, conceived initially as a vast network of gravity-fed canals, has evolved into a quasi-conjunctive management system in which pumped groundwater increasingly augments surface water supplies. Analysis of the evolution of on-farm energy use for agriculture in Punjab Province over the last 15 years finds that while total crop production increased 31%, direct energy intensity for agriculture increased 80%. Moreover, direct energy use is chiefly driven by groundwater pumping (61%). Important knowledge gaps are identified in the critical water-energy-food interdependencies that need to be addressed for sustainable management of scarce natural resources in Pakistan.

Keywords:

• energy
• irrigation
• groundwater
• agricultural productivity
• resource use efficiency
• Pakistan
• Indus

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the generous support of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative Seed Fund Program (Grant No. 6923634). We also thank Emma F. Broderick and Lina Karain for help in data compilation and geo-spatial mapping.