The Hindon basin, part of the Gangetic Plain, is known to be significantly contaminated by a broad range of pollutants. High fertilizer and pesticide use, combined with groundwater percolation, is a root cause of pollution of water resources. The land-use pattern data shows that 66% of land is utilised for agriculture.
Agriculture in Hindon basin is characterized by the main crop, sugarcane, which is a water-intensive crop that requires significant volumes of irrigation water. My study is first quantifying root zone physical and chemical processes in sugarcane growing fields i.e. combined water and solute (Pesticide) transport at field scale using agro-hydrological models such as SWAP-WOFOST and PEARL. The core of this research proposal is to first conduct innovative research on the assessment of key soil and crop parameters that form the basis for scalable agro-hydrological modeling, SWAP-WOFOST. Next objective is to focus on Potential Pollution and Environmental risk of Pesticides in Hindon basin. Concentration of different pesticides and their mixtures is determined using laboratory testing of soil and water samples. The obtained concentration will be use to calibrate the pesticide model, PEARL. Later, The calibrated model will be used to create various future scenarios based on type and quantity of pesticides application.