The fact that the state's most
drought-prone regions have continued to devote precious resources for highly
water-intensive sugarcane cultivation and sugar production indicates that there
is more to the region's water crisis than climatic conditions alone. Parineeta
Dandekar analyses.
14 March 2013 - This year seems to be a year of basalt-hard lessons for Maharashtra.
The year saw the irrigation scam, sugarcane farmers protesting for a fair price
(leading to the death of two farmers) and now a ‘drought worse than 1972’ with
11,801 villages declared to be drought affected in March 2013.
If we analyse these three events in perspective,
their link becomes inextricably clear. This year’s drought, though devastating,
was not an unannounced calamity. It had been building up since August 2012,
when more than 400 villages were declared drought-affected. The protest by
sugarcane farmers was not a sudden outburst either; their discontent over fair
price for sugarcane had been simmering and occasionally boiling over for the
past few years. Last but not the least, the irrigation scam, though
unprecedented in scale, was not a sudden revelation. Many NGOs, whistle blowers
and government committees had been warning about the tip of the iceberg for
several years.
Many
experts, organisations and reports like World Bank have highlighted the
unjustifiably high share of sugarcane in Maharashtra's irrigation
That all these factors came together in one year is
not just an unfortunate coincidence. It shows that the reasons behind the
Maharashtra drought are starker than simply less rainfall. Unless these root
causes are addressed, no amount of state and central assistance can banish
droughts. Farmers and rural and urban poor have been suffering for too long due
to the opportunistic and myopic response of the political and administrative
leadership in Maharashtra to successive droughts. To understand and change
this, we need to first take a long, deep look at some of the reasons sparking
the water shortage:
Worst drought-affected districts have
the most sugar factories
Sugarcane is one of the most water-intensive crops
grown in Maharashtra, requiring ten times more water than Jowar or nut.
Ironically, the regions where it is grown the most are chronically drought hit
regions, which have been receiving central aid for drought proofing though the
Drought Proof Area Program and other such schemes. Sugarcane area under drip
irrigation in these regions is dismally low.
According to the Water Resources Department,
Maharashtra, in 2009-10, of the approximate 25 lakh hectares (Ha) of irrigated
area in Maharashtra, 3,97,000 Ha was under sugarcane. However, according to the
Union Agricultural Ministry (which would get its data from the State
Agricultural Department), area under sugarcane was 9,70,000 hectares in 2010-11
and again 10,02, 000 hectares in 2011-12.
When it was grown on 16% Irrigated area, sugarcane
used 76% of all water for Irrigation. With area under sugarcane increasing, its
hegemony has increased exponentially. Not only does it capture maximum
water, it results in water logging, salinity and severe water pollution by
sugar factories. Incidentally, Maharashtra has 209 sugar factories, the highest
in any state in India.
A strong example of links between drought and
sugarcane may be found in the Solapur District in the Bhima Basin, which is
facing the worst of droughts today. Live storage of Ujani Dam is zero and
drinking water is being taken from dead storage, even as Solapur and 400
villages depend on Ujani for drinking water. Drinking water supply has become a
severe problem. Hundreds of villages and blocks have been declared drought
affected. Nearly 1000 tankers have been plying, and there is a near exodus of
stricken communities to urban areas.
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Solapur
also includes the Union Agriculture Minister’s parliamentary constituency Madha.
This chronically drought-prone district, with average annual rainfall of 550
mm, is the largest sugarcane producer in Maharashtra with the densest
concentration of sugar factories and area under sugarcane (see pie chart
above). That such water intensive cropping pattern in an arid region should
flourish in Union Minister of Agriculture Sharad Pawar’s constituency speaks
volumes about the political backing for sugarcane and the attitude of the
Ministry.
During a meeting at the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF), officials from the Water Resource Department (WRD) claimed that
of the 87 TMC (Thousand million cubic feet) live storage of Ujani, 50-60 TMC is
flow irrigation to sugarcane in command, accounting for more than 60% of its
live storage. The authorised use, however, is only 32 TMC! In addition, there
are several sugar factories in the upstream of the Ujani dam, taking water
through unauthorised lifts from the backwaters. So, actual water going to
sugarcane from Ujani is estimated to be close to 80% or more. This is causing
severe water scarcity in the downstream regions, creating severe drinking water
crisis.
All of this diversion apparently happens with
political support. Of the 30 cabinet ministers in Maharashtra, 13 ministers
either own sugar factories, or a substantial share in these. The White Paper on
Irrigation Projects proudly boasts that the Ujani Project irrigates 92000
hectares of Sugarcane.
Apart from Ujani, Pune region (Districts Satara,
Solapur and Pune), Ahmednagar Region, Aurangabad region and Nanded region, -
all of them drought-prone areas - also have a dense concentration of sugar
factories, aided by irrigated sugarcane fields in the vicinity.
Sugarcane is increasing in area in drought affected
Krishna and Godavari Basins too, commanding maximum share of the irrigation
water. This is borne out by the table below, all figures taken from the
Maharashtra Irrigation Status report 2009-10 (the latest one available).
|
Area under main crops in thousand hectares
(canals, groundwater and rivers) ISR 2009-10 |
|||||||||
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Region
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Jowar
|
Wheat
|
Ground
nut
|
Harbhara
|
Rice
|
Oilseed
|
Sugar-cane
|
Cotton
|
Fruits
|
|
Pune
|
221.43
|
191.85
|
38.68
|
52.85
|
96.96
|
61.58
|
315.97
|
5.77
|
13.80
|
|
Aurangabad
|
29.38
|
33.33
|
5.07
|
12.68
|
0.08
|
2.30
|
43.30
|
27.83
|
5.48
|
Sugarcane: Lifeline of the political
economy of Maharashtra
A Memorandum for Drought Relief sent to the centre
from Maharashtra in 2003-04 said that Sugarcane is the “Lifeline of the agro
economy of Maharashtra”. However, more than a lifeline of the agro-economy, it
appears to be so for the political economy of Maharashtra. Hugely entrenched in
sugar politics, the political economy is unable to take any brave and
sustainable decisions when it comes to cultivating sugarcane. As experts have
pointed out in the past, entire water management of Maharashtra revolves around
sugarcane.
The Ujani Dam, sanctioned in 1964 for 40 Crores is
still not complete, while the expenses have been pegged at nearly 2000 Crores.
Even as the main canal work is incomplete, more and more lift irrigation schemes,
link canals, underground tunnels are being planned on this dam, for sugarcane.
Incomplete projects, with bad distribution network, which has been the hallmark
of the irrigation scam, has aided sugarcane cultivation the most and has
resulted in concentration of water in small ‘pockets of prosperity’ amidst
drought affected zones and thirsty tail-enders.
Osmanabad collector K.M. Nagzode had written to the
state sugar commissioner on 29 November 2012 that Osmanabad “had received only
50% of average rainfall, and water levels in dams are extremely low while
ground water hasn’t been replenished and that since a sugar factory typically
uses at least one lakh litres of water a day, it would be advisable to suspend
crushing and divert the harvest to neighbouring districts”. However, no such
orders were given and cane crushing went on. Osmanabad district contributes
significantly to sugar production of Maharashtra, with over 25100 hectares of
sugarcane, which is the only crop that gets irrigation in this district.
District Collectors have the right to reserve water
for drinking in any major, medium and minor projects, when they see the need.
However, even when Ujani was reaching zero live storage, such decision was not
taken by the Solapur Collector.
Everybody loves a good drought
A Memorandum for drought relief sent by the
Maharashtra government to the Centre does not seem to be in the public domain,
but the state is reportedly seeking Rs 2500 crore for drought relief. The
Memorandum for drought relief, 2003-04 shows that during every drought, we
indulge in the same fire- fighting measures of resorting to the Employment
Guarantee Scheme, tanker water supply, cattle camps and well-control. Once the
drought passes, sugarcane is pushed again.
Currently 3 million farmers and significant number
of labourers are involved in sugarcane farming, it is claimed. In reality, even
if a million hectares were to be under sugarcane, how can 3 million farmers be
involved in sugarcane farming when the average farm size in Maharashtra is 1.45
hectares?
We have neither been able to solve the minimum
price for sugarcane lock till now. Farmers have been demanding Rs 4500 per
tonne of sugarcane from sugar industries, which have agreed to only Rs 2300/
tonne. In Vidarbha, the situation is even worse with prices at Rs 1500/ tonne.
The government has made it clear that it will not interfere in the issue. Many
sugar industries did not even pay last year’s dues to farmers. Globally and in
Indian markets, sugar prices are going down. Last November, during farmers’
protests for minimum price for sugarcane, two farmers lost their lives. This
protest was the strongest in the drought hit region around Ujani Dam.
Instead of hiding behind claims of three million
sugarcane farmers, politicians need to ensure that these farmers do not have to
suffer the same fate time and again. With climate change, droughts have become
a more frequent reality. The only way to tackle and manage droughts is to
improve the resilience of the agro-economic system and water management systems
in coping with droughts. Encouraging and pushing for sugarcane in chronically
drought-affected areas is a poor adaptation measure and only pushes farmers
deeper into the vicious cycle of uncertainty, crop failures, and hardships.
Drip Irrigation: A Band-aid solution?
The Maharashtra state government is planning to
make it mandatory for sugarcane growers to use drip irrigation systems over the
next three years, a move prompted by the drought. “Hence a regulation will make
a big difference in the water utilization pattern in the agro-sector,” chief
minister, Prithviraj Chavan said in an interview.
Measures like drip Irrigation, sprinkler
irrigation, etc, though critical, are incapable of arresting the proliferation
of sugarcane, a fundamentally inappropriate crop in drought prone areas.
Moreover, despite the relative abundance of sugarcane and heavy subsidies for
drip, sugarcane belts have stuck to flood irrigation and have not adopted drip
the way Nashik region has for grapes. Of the one million hectares under
sugarcane, barely 10% is under drip. Even the Union Agriculture Minister’s
constituency has not shown any notable success on this front.
As sugarcane is claiming almost all of irrigation
and also domestic water from dams in the drought-affected zones, villagers in
Marathwada and Western Maharashtra do not have drinking water; students are
missing their exams to attend to cattle at cattle shelters and hospitals have
to postpone surgeries for want of water. If at all Maharashtra wants to
liberate itself from the shackle of regular droughts, one of the things it must
first do is break free from sugarcane, and politicians who push the mirage of
sugarcane in the absence of any sustainable efforts towards improving farm
livelihoods.
This drought would not have been so severe if
Maharashtra had broken the shackles of sugar earlier.
14 March 2013
References and Links
1. Bharat
Patankar, Asserting the Rights of the Toiling Peasantry for Water Use, IWRM in
India
2. Irrigation
Status Report 2009-10, Maharashtra Water Resources Department
3. 64th
Meeting of the Expert Appraisal committee on River Valley and Hydropower
projects: TOR for Shirapur Lift Irrigation Scheme
4. Revised
Memorandum to the Government of India on Drought Relief and Mitigation in
Maharashtra (2003-04)
5. Agriculture
Statistics at a Glance 2012, Ministry of Agriculturehttp://eands.dacnet.nic.in/Publication12-12-2012/Agriculture_at_a_Glance
2012/Pages85-136.pdf
