Harsharn Grewal’s research while affiliated with Western Sydney University and other places

Groundwater is often over-exploited, and its depletion threatens livelihoods of village communities in India. Existing interventions have been insufficient, and they often fail to engage farmers at the local level. The main aim of MyWell app is to implement mobile phone technology for groundwater monitoring and management in villages in rural India. The app is designed to assist in a participatory, bottom-up approach to assist village volunteers, called Bhujal Jankaars (Hindi words for ‘groundwater informed’) to record and track groundwater depth, rainfall and check dam water level data. The app crowdsources data and displays the current status and historical records of well groundwater level, rainfall amount and checkdam water level for a given location for village level comparison and analysis and decision making. MyWell is available on Android and iOS smartphones, web browsers, and over SMS on feature phones. The backend of the app was built with a microservices approach, enabling us to divide the system into smaller parts which perform one job each. The goal of this approach is to ensure a reliable, scalable and maintainable system. While the field testing has been relatively limited, the app has shown encouraging results to confirm the potential of MyWell as a tool for village level participatory groundwater monitoring in developing country such as India. Overall, this study has demonstrated that MyWell can be a valuable tool for crowdsourcing and engaging villagers as citizen scientists to monitor and share groundwater data, and in-turn groundwater level data can be used for recharge estimates and thus help farmers in planning for cropped area in the post-monsoon season.

A survey was conducted in eight secondary schools located in two watersheds in Gujarat and Rajasthan (semi-arid region of India) to assess students’ perceptions about groundwater scarcity issues and the impact of the scarcity on their educational opportunities. Survey responses to a detailed questionnaire by a cohort of students in both watersheds; school attendance records of year 8 class students (13–14 years old) and responses gathered via a socio-economic survey involving 500 families in the study area were used in the study. In both watersheds, >90% students identified groundwater scarcity as a major issue. Required to work at home or farm, about 65% students in Gujarat and 60% in Rajasthan missed school for up to 2 days/month; and a smaller proportion (∼ 30%) missed schools for 4 or more days/month. School absenteeism was found to be linked with gender; female students missed schools more frequently than their male counterpart. The school attendance records in Rajasthan showed that the frequency of female students missing schools for 5 or more days/month was on an average 2–10 times greater than that for males. The gender difference in absenteeism in all schools was statistically significant (P < .018**). The study highlighted that groundwater scarcity in the study area, and consequent demand on their time for household work including fetching drinking water are contributing factors towards limiting their educational and economic opportunities. Groundwater scarcity can be one of the key factors that can limit inclusiveness and empowerment of women and need to be considered in policy-making.

Sustainable use of groundwater is becoming critical in India and requireseffective participation from local communities along with technical, social, economic,policy and political inputs. Access to groundwater for farming communities is also anemotional and complex issue as their livelihood and survival depends on it. In this article,we report on transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the issues, challenges andoptions for improving sustainability of groundwater use in States of Gujarat and Rajasthan,India. In this project, called Managed Aquifer Recharge through Village level Intervention(MARVI), the research is focused on developing a suitable participatory approach andmethodology with associated tools that will assist in improving supply and demandmanagement of groundwater. The study was conducted in the Meghraj watershed inAravalli district, Gujarat, and the Dharta watershed in Udaipur district, Rajasthan, India.The study involved the collection of hydrologic, agronomic and socio-economic data andengagement of local village and school communities through their role in groundwatermonitoring, field trials, photovoice activities and education campaigns. The study revealedthat availability of relevant and reliable data related to the various aspects of groundwaterand developing trust and support between local communities, NGOs and governmentagencies are the key to moving towards a dialogue to decide on what to do to achievesustainable use of groundwater. The analysis of long-term water table data indicatedconsiderable fluctuation in groundwater levels from year to year or a net lowering of thewater table, but the levels tend to recover during wet years. This provides hope that byimproving management of recharge structures and groundwater pumping, we can assist instabilizing the local water table. Our interventions through Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), (a Hindiword meaning "groundwater informed" volunteers), schools, photovoice workshops andnewsletters have resulted in dialogue within the communities about the seriousness of thegroundwater issue and ways to explore options for situation improvement. The BJs arenow trained to understand how local recharge and discharge patterns are influenced bylocal rainfall patterns and pumping patterns and they are now becoming local champions ofgroundwater and an important link between farmers and project team. This study hasfurther strengthened the belief that traditional research approaches to improve thegroundwater situation are unlikely to be suitable for complex groundwater issues in thestudy areas. The experience from the study indicates that a transdisciplinary approach islikely to be more effective in enabling farmers, other village community members andNGOs to work together with researchers and government agencies to understand thegroundwater situation and design interventions that are holistic and have wider ownership.Also, such an approach is expected to deliver longer-term sustainability of groundwater ata regional level.

Export Date: 22 May 2013, Source: Scopus

The Australian greenhouse industry is primarily dominated by low-cost hydroponic greenhouses for delivery of water and nutrients to plants to grow a variety of vegetable crops including cucumber and tomato. The nutrient rich drainage water from these greenhouses is generally released into the local environment causing pollution concerns. This study was initiated to investigate the opportunities in recycling drainage water to increase water and nutrient-use efficiency of hydroponic greenhouses and reduce the environmental impact of the drainage water discharge. Results indicated that a total of 4.15Â ML/ha of irrigation water was applied during the 13 weeks crop growing period of which 2.56Â ML/ha was drained off and 1.59Â ML/ha was used to meet the crop evapotranspiration demand. The study showed that the recycling of the drainage water resulted in a 33% reduction in potable water used for irrigation in cucumber production. The drainage water contained 59% applied N, 25% applied P and 55% applied K and illustrated the potential for nutrient recovery and production cost savings through the reuse of drainage water. This case study demonstrates that some relatively simple changes in irrigation practices within greenhouse systems to recycle drainage water can considerably improve sustainability of low-cost hydroponic greenhouses and help minimise the environmental footprint of the greenhouse industry.

The effects of magnetic treatment of irrigation water and snow pea (Pisum sativum L var. macrocarpon) and Kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) seeds on the emergence, early growth and nutrient contents of seedlings were investigated under glasshouse conditions. The treatments included (i) magnetic treatment of irrigation water (MTW), (ii) magnetic treatment of seeds (MTS), (iii) magnetic treatment of irrigation water and seeds (MTWS) and (iv) no magnetic treatment of irrigation water or seeds as control treatment. A magnetic treatment device with two permanent magnets (magnetic induction: 3.5-136 mT) was used for the above treatments. Seeds were sown in washed sand and seedlings were harvested at 20 days. The results showed that MTW led to a significant (P < 0.05) increase in emergence rate index (ERI; 42% for snow pea and 51% for chickpea), shoot dry weight (25% for snow pea and 20% for chickpea) and contents of N, K, Ca, Mg, S, Na, Zn, Fe and Mn in both seedling varieties compared to control seedlings. Likewise, there were significant increases in ERI (33% for snow peas and 37% for chickpea), shoot dry weight (11% for snow pea and 4% for chickpea) and some nutrients of snow pea and chickpea seedlings with MTS in comparison with the controls. The results of this study suggest that both MTW and MTS have the potential to improve the early seedling growth and nutrient contents of seedlings.

The past studies reveal that the magnetic field or treatment can affect plant growth and other related parameters. Similarly, the past studies have indicated that there are some beneficial effects of magnetic treatment on seed germination and seedling emergence. Nevertheless, we have no clear understanding yet as to the mechanisms behind these effects on plant growth, water productivity, and the changes magnetic treatment brings about in nutritional aspects of seed germination and seedling growth. To assess the potential of the magnetic treatment for practical applications, we need further testing under field conditions to clearly understand and demonstrate the beneficial effects of the magnetically treated irrigation water for crop production under real-world situations. Further research is also warranted to understand how the magnetic treatment affects crop and soil parameters and therefore soil, crop and water quality conditions under which the treatment will be effective to provide water productivity gains.

Lucerne (Medicagosativa L.), a deep-rooted perennial legume forage, is a significant part of pastures, and is also grown in rotation with wheat to improve the yield and protein content of grains. Adequate supply of key nutrients is one of the important factors in higher productivity and sustainability of lucerne pastures. However, farmers mostly overlook the importance of nutrient management of established lucerne pastures, resulting in poor persistence, low productivity and weed invasion. The aim of this on-farm field study was to investigate the effects of the combined use of P, K, S and Zn and different sources of Zn on herbage yield, crude protein, nutrient composition, nitrogen fixation, weed invasion and persistence of an established (2 years old) stand of ‘Aurora’ lucerne pasture. A randomised block design was used to test ten fertiliser treatments. The combined use of P, K, S and Zn significantly (P