India, March 14 -- Over 90% of humanity's consumptive water use is used for irrigated agricultural production

More than half (52 per cent) of the irrigation expansion has taken place in areas that were already water-stressed in the year 2000, with India alone accounting for 36 per cent of global unsustainable expansion.

It is well known that irrigation is necessary for increasing the global crop production but researchers from the United States of America, Germany, Finland and China have now investigated how the expansion of irrigated agriculture has been in an unsustainable manner, leaving insufficient supply for nature and for other human needs.

Over 90 per cent of humanity's consumptive water use is used for irrigated agricultural p...