India today pumps more groundwater than China and the United States combined—nearly 90 per cent of it for agriculture. With over 70 million irrigation wells dotting its landscape, the country’s groundwater economy is not only the world’s largest but also its most fragile. At a time when the food-water-energy nexus faces acute stress, what can India learn from a desert nation that turned water scarcity into agri-innovation? To explore that question, Agrospectrum spoke with Dr. Lior Asaf, Senior International Development and Water Resources Consultant, World Bank; who has worked closely with Indian states under the India-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP). From metering to micro-irrigation, from wastewater reuse to crop diversification, his insights reveal a hard truth: the solution is not just about new technology—it’s about putting accountability and design at the heart of agricultural water use.

India today extracts more groundwater than China and the U.S. combined—most of it for farming. How do you read the scale of this crisis from a global perspective?

From a global lens, India’s groundwater crisis is staggering in scale and complexity. With 1.5 billion people, India’s natural water availability—around 4,000 cubic meters per capita annually—isn’t catastrophic on paper. But the crisis isn’t about quantity. It’s about efficiency and management.
You are facing groundwater stress on a continental scale, driven by fragmented governance and poor alignment between water use and development priorities. Consider this: eastern India receives over 4,000 mm of rainfall annually, yet regions in Assam, Jharkhand, and Odisha still face drought-like agricultural distress.

Why? Because irrigation, urban planning, and agricultural production operate in silos—with little systemic integration.

There’s no unified model that aligns groundwater extraction with cropping patterns, food supply chains, or urban expansion. In Israel, every drop is monitored, priced, and allocated across sectors under a centralized system. Farmers don’t decide how much water they’ll use—the system does, based on availability, crop priority, and aquifer health. In India, with over 70 million irrigation wells and no metering, it’s an open-loop system.

Without a shift to data-driven, integrated water governance, India is undeniably moving toward an agricultural tipping point. The risks are not theoretical—they are already visible in falling water tables, increasing farmer distress, and growing urban-rural competition for resources.

India’s Green Revolution was a historic win for food security. However, has it also made the country water-insecure?

Absolutely. The Green Revolution was essential for feeding the country, but it inadvertently created a dependency on hydro-intensive crops like wheat, rice, and sugarcane, especially in states like Punjab, Haryana, and Maharashtra that are ecologically unsuitable. In Israel, we never had that luxury. We began with less than 300 mm of rainfall, and yet we developed one of the world’s most productive farming systems. Why? Because water was always treated as a strategic resource.

From the start, Israel implemented centralized water allocation, strict metering, and tiered pricing. Farmers don’t decide how much water they consume—the government does, based on scientific assessments. Every single drop is metered, monitored, and paid for. Israel has 5,000 production wells. India has 70 million. That’s your delta. You can’t allow economic models to flourish on a resource that is completely unpriced.

In India, paddy and sugarcane—among the thirstiest crops—are grown in some of the driest states. In Israel, how is crop planning aligned with water availability? Could India move in that direction without political fallout?

In Israel, crop planning and water planning are inseparable. Every project—whether for grapes, tomatoes, or bananas—is designed with irrigation viability in mind. Drip irrigation is universal. Farmers have last-mile connectivity to pressurized water. Wastewater is reused. Saline water is treated. Coastal aquifers are monitored every 2 sq km.

India’s challenge is scale. Smallholders don’t have market power or ecosystem support. Water and agriculture are governed by separate ministries, often without coordination. But that doesn’t mean reform is impossible. India must align production incentives with groundwater realities. That doesn’t mean banning paddy overnight—but incentivizing millets, pulses, and less water-intensive crops in dry zones through a combination of support pricing, procurement, and irrigation access. It has to be a just transition, but yes, it’s necessary.

What about remote sensing and fertigation? Can these techs work in India’s fragmented farm landscape?

Absolutely. The technology is not the constraint—reach is. Every farmer in India has a smartphone today. Just like Paytm changed how payments happen, smart irrigation apps, satellite imagery, and real-time dashboards can revolutionize water use. We have case studies where satellite imaging was used to guide irrigation in Israel’s banana farms and citrus orchards. One of the most promising examples of Indo-Israeli agricultural collaboration is unfolding in Bundelkhand, a drought-prone region spanning parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Through the India-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP) and under the guidance of Israeli water experts, smart drip irrigation systems have been piloted in several villages across the Jhansi and Lalitpur districts. These projects integrate precision fertigation, soil-moisture monitoring, and remote sensing to improve water-use efficiency in regions where traditional flood irrigation has become ecologically untenable.

The initiative has not only introduced climate-smart practices but has also enabled farmers to cultivate high-value crops like citrus, pomegranate, and vegetables using minimal water. With real-time agronomic advisory and hands-on training forming a core part of the project design, the Bundelkhand pilots are now being seen as scalable blueprints for resilient dryland farming across India’s semi-arid zones. However again, the key is enabling systems: connectivity, training, and clear economics. Without that, even the best technology becomes shelfware.

The government is promoting millets as “Shree Anna.” Are they truly a hydro-resilient solution or just a symbolic gesture?

Millets are part of the solution, but they are not a silver bullet. You cannot replace all of India’s agriculture with millets—but in dryland and water-stressed zones, they offer a compelling case. Millets are naturally hydro-efficient, require minimal inputs, and are more climate-resilient than paddy or sugarcane. From a groundwater conservation standpoint, they are clearly superior. But symbolic elevation alone won’t deliver results.

What’s needed is a complete ecosystem—from assured procurement and localized MSPs to processing infrastructure, storage, consumer awareness, and market access. Without this backbone, farmers will not switch, regardless of the crop’s environmental advantages. A zone-wise, diversified crop strategy is the way forward. Millets must be viewed not as a replacement but as a strategic layer in India’s broader agri-water transition. With the right incentives, millets can not only shrink India’s water footprint, but also enhance dietary diversity and stabilize farmer incomes in ecologically fragile regions. The success of Shree Anna lies in grounding its symbolism in market logic and institutional design.

Drip irrigation is a benchmark in Israel, but remains limited in India. What’s preventing scale—cost, behavior, or policy inertia?

In Israel, there is no flood irrigation. Period. Drip is the default, not the exception. Every farmer is trained in system design, fertigation logic, and root-zone precision. But the key isn’t just infrastructure—it’s the intensive capacity building that supports it. The Israeli government subsidizes infrastructure, yes—but more importantly, it invests in knowledge systems that enable farmers to adapt, fine-tune, and sustain the technology.

India has made significant progress by subsidizing drip irrigation—often up to 50 per cent or more. But too often, the system is delivered, not deployed. The missing link is execution support. Farmers are handed hardware without the two-year transition roadmap that’s essential: design consultation, real-world training, seasonal calibration, and post-installation handholding.

Without that, drip systems fall into disuse or are underutilized. The answer lies not in more demonstrations, but in building a national mentorship ecosystem—where trained agronomists, agri-tech startups, and extension workers walk with the farmer from day one. India has the scale and talent to do this. But unless policy shifts from “install and exit” to “train and transition,” even the best technology will remain stuck in pilot purgatory.

What about remote sensing and fertigation? Can these techs work in India’s fragmented farm landscape?

Absolutely. The technology isn’t the bottleneck—access and ecosystem readiness are. Today, nearly every Indian farmer owns a smartphone. Just as Paytm transformed digital payments, smart irrigation apps, satellite-guided crop monitoring, and real-time fertigation dashboards can reshape how water and nutrients are managed at the root zone. These tools exist. The challenge is ensuring they reach the field and are meaningfully used.

In Israel, we routinely use satellite imagery to optimize irrigation in banana and citrus farms, adjusting water delivery based on canopy stress. These practices have been successfully adapted in India too. In Bundelkhand, one of the country’s driest regions, we’ve partnered with Indian counterparts to pilot smart drip systems across select villages in Jhansi and Lalitpur.

These projects combine precision fertigation, soil-moisture sensors, and weather-based scheduling—helping farmers grow citrus and pomegranate with minimal water. It works. Yields improve, water usage drops, and farmer incomes rise.

But again, technology alone can’t scale itself. You need connectivity infrastructure, capacity building, and viable economic models. Farmers must be trained not just in using the tool, but in trusting it. Extension services need upgrading. Subsidy schemes must align with digital tools. Without this enabling framework, even the best tech risks becoming shelfware in a storage room instead of a game-changer in the field.

In India, treated wastewater reuse is largely limited to cities. What should be done to connect it to agriculture, especially in peri-urban areas?

This is India’s decade of opportunity. You already generate over 1,000 MLD of wastewater, but only about 70 per cent is treated—and almost none reused in agriculture. That’s the gap. Urban wastewater treatment is improving, but without economic linkages to agriculture, the system remains disconnected.

In Israel, we recycle over 90 per cent of our wastewater, and a large portion of that goes into agriculture. The Shafdan system, located just south of Tel Aviv, is a global benchmark. It treats municipal wastewater from over 2 million people and uses natural soil aquifer treatment (SAT) to purify water, which is then piped to Negev desert farms up to 200 km away. It’s not just about technology—it’s about integration, governance, and infrastructure planning.

India needs to build similar economic and logistical bridges between wastewater treatment facilities and farms, especially in peri-urban and industrial regions like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. These states already have substantial treatment capacity, but the lack of last-mile delivery systems and pricing models hampers agricultural reuse.

The solution is not simply building more plants, but embedding wastewater into regional water planning, supported by smart irrigation, assured offtake, and financial viability for both utilities and farmers. Create pilots, start with a 10 per cent wastewater reuse target in agri zones, and scale from there. The technology exists. What India now needs is an enabling ecosystem with policy clarity, financial models, and farmer training.

India-Israel Agricultural Centres of Excellence have scaled across states. What’s the biggest breakthrough from this partnership?

The India-Israel Agricultural Project (IIAP) has proven that knowledge transfer, climate-smart practices, and high-efficiency irrigation systems can work in India’s highly diverse agro-climatic zones. What started as a bilateral collaboration has now evolved into a network of over 30 Centres of Excellence across more than a dozen states—each acting as a demonstration hub for precision agriculture, fertigation, nursery management, and protected cultivation.

Take polyhouse tomato cultivation in Karnal, Haryana—the yields have more than doubled while cutting water use by half. In Nagpur and Jalgaon districts in Maharashtra, farmers have successfully adopted drip-fed citrus orchards with real-time moisture sensors and fertigation units, improving both fruit quality and water-use efficiency. In Mizoram, the CoE has helped demonstrate Israeli protocols for high-altitude vegetable farming. Even arid zones like Rajasthan have benefited through CoEs that showcase integrated water resource management alongside protected farming.

But the biggest breakthrough is not infrastructure—it’s human capital development. These centres are now incubators for “training the trainers”: extension workers, agri-startups, and local agronomists who go on to scale these practices among smallholders. India’s challenge has never been ambition—it has been execution at scale with consistency. These CoEs offer living blueprints for scaling high-efficiency, tech-enabled agriculture with embedded climate resilience. Going forward, the model must evolve from static demonstration sites to dynamic innovation nodes that integrate with digital agriculture, climate forecasting, and market linkages.

What’s your final message for India as it enters what may be its most water-stressed decade?

Free water is not the solution. It creates waste, distorts value, and kills innovation. India needs a smart grid for agriculture—with meters, data-driven allocation, and accountable consumption. Not to control farmers, but to empower them. When you connect input to outcome, farmers will start seeing water as a business input—not an infinite right. Encourage them to save water to grow more, not just to survive. The crisis is real, but so is the opportunity. The IT revolution transformed payments in India. It can transform irrigation too—if the policy frameworks, data systems, and capacity plans are in place.

—— Suchetana Choudhury (suchetana.choudhuri@agrospectrumindia.com)