Boosting the Water Productivity of Dry‐Season Crops in Eastern India: A Field‐Based Study in Diverse Agro‐Climatic Regions

ABSTRACT Increasing water productivity and mitigating the impacts of climate shocks is central to achieving food and water security. This study employed a household survey and farmer field experiments in four districts of Odisha and Assam states in Eastern India to understand and build farmers agricultural resilience. Household survey of 1627 farmers showed that ‘access to irrigation’, ‘system rice intensification (SRI)’, and ‘better seeds and biofertilizers’ significantly reduce farmers' vulnerability to poverty. However, the adoption of efficient irrigation practices, critical for building agricultural resilience, remains low. To increase awareness and adoption through demonstration of benefits, farmer field experiments were conducted for efficient irrigation interventions, including soil moisture sensor‐based (SMS) irrigation, drip, and sprinkler for non‐paddy crops, and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and SRI for paddy. The interventions led to 8–69% water savings, 2–220%, 15–600%, and 34–346% increases in crop yield, irrigation (IWP), and economic water productivity (EWP), respectively, with drip irrigation showing greatest increase, followed by sprinkler and SMS. The AWD and SRI interventions showed 26–59% water savings, 2–131%, 40–600%, and 39–550% increases in yield, IWP, and EWP, respectively. Results show that if implemented in existing irrigated vegetable areas, these interventions could reduce fallow lands by 4–60% in both states.