ABSTRACT
India supports 17% of the human and 15% of the livestock population of the world with only 2.4% of the land and 4% of the water resources. Efficiency of pumping units plays an important role in efficient utilization of groundwater resources as low efficiency of pumping units result in excessive energy consumption, reduced irrigation efficiency, and low productivity. Groundwater has rapidly emerged to occupy a dominant place in India's agriculture and food security. In the agriculture sector, the importance of groundwater has been increasing manifold due to factors such as technological breakthrough in water extraction technology soft loans for installation of groundwater extraction mechanism, and remunerative relative price ratio in favor of water intensive, commercial, and horticultural crops. Irrigated agriculture plays a vital role in the securing of global food production. Increasing contamination of groundwater with special reference to arsenic and fluoride is another major area of concern, and needs immediate attention and strategies to combat it.
