MSP has skewed the cropping pattern towards more water-intensive crops

Did you know that in the last 30 years, the area under food-grains in the country has shrunk? It has fallen to about 122.65 million hectares in 2015-16 from 131.16 million hectares in 1983-84.But, interestingly, the area under rice and wheat has gone up. In 1983-84, of the total area under food-grains, rice was sown on 31 per cent of the land (41.24 million hectares); this stands at about 35 per c...