Water reform must begin at the farm

Building a more resilient, diverse and less water-consuming farm system has multiple collateral win-wins

India’s water crisis has now assumed mind-boggling proportions. When some of our children in Punjab drink water laced with uranium and more and more groundwater in Bengal and Bihar has arsenic, we need to be seriously worried. With growing rates of urbanisation, the miserable state of urban water supply and sewage treatment is a matter of grave concern. The recurrent droughts and floods afflicting millions every year must surely bring into question the way we have been managing our water resources. No wonder, then, conflicts over water are now commonplace, not merely among states, but across town and country, farm