More measured irrigation can help conserve water, suggests author of new study In India nearly 60 per cent of land area is used for agriculture, nearly half of that artificially irrigated. Historically, the introduction of irrigation technologies has fuelled the country’s ‘Green Revolution’ and helped boost crop yield. But, it comes at the cost of heavy consumption of freshwater and groundwater resources. A new study published in the journal Climate Dynamics suggests that irrigation practices may be affecting more than just groundwater tables. A team of researchers from the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi used computer simulations and sophisticated global climate models to analyse the effects of irrigation on the climate in India.