Rice cultivation supplies half the world\u2019s population with staple food, while also being a major driver of freshwater depletion\u2014consuming roughly a quarter of global freshwater\u2014and accounting for \u223c48% of greenhouse gas emissions from croplands. In regions like Punjab, India, where groundwater levels are plummeting at 41.6 cm\/year, adopting water-saving rice farming practices is critical. Direct-Seeded Rice (DSR) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) can cut irrigation water use by 20\u201340% without hurting yields, yet lack of spatial data on adoption impedes effective adaptation policy and climate action. We present a machine learning framework to bridge this data gap by monitoring sustainable rice farming at scale. In collaboration with agronomy experts and a large-scale farmer training program, we obtained ground-truth data from \u223c1,400 fields across Punjab. Leveraging this partnership, we developed a novel dimensional classification approach that decouples sowing and irrigation practices, achieving F1 scores of 0.8 and 0.74 respectively, solely employing Sentinel-1 satellite imagery. Explainability analysis reveals that DSR classification is robust while AWD classification depends primarily on planting schedule differences, as Sentinel-1\u2019s 12-day revisit frequency cannot capture the higher frequency irrigation cycles characteristic of AWD practices. Applying this model across 3 million fields reveals spatial heterogeneity in adoption at the state level, highlighting gaps and opportunities for policy targeting. Our district-level adoption rates correlate well with government estimates (Spearman\u2019s \u03c1 = 0.69 and Rank Biased Overlap = 0.77). This study provides policymakers and sustainability programs a powerful tool to track practice adoption, inform targeted interventions, and drive data-driven policies for water conservation and climate mitigation at regional scale.<\/p>\n
Extended version: https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2507.08605<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rice cultivation supplies half the world\u2019s population with staple food, while also being a major driver of freshwater depletion\u2014consuming roughly a quarter of global freshwater\u2014and accounting for \u223c48% of greenhouse gas emissions from croplands. In regions like Punjab, India, where groundwater levels are plummeting at 41.6 cm\/year, adopting water-saving rice farming practices is critical. 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