Weather Forecasting And Sustainability

An idea of sustainability in agriculture

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

A recent important media report claimed that a growing number of farmers in Punjab are interested in cultivating rice. The change of mind-set is due to some advantage of rice production over wheat or other products in the state. Punjab enjoys the biggest advantage of near total irrigation facility. Additionally, the state government provides free electricity to the farmers. Again paddy is such a product, which can be sold at MSP by almost any amount a farmer can supply. But paddy is a water-intensive product. How far is it sustainable if the rice production grows higher and higher? How far Maharashtra can sustain sugarcane production is also a question. This is because sugarcane is one of the most water-intensive crops. A kg of sugar requires about 12,000 litres of water. Maharashtra is a state where only 18% of the agricultural land is irrigated but noticeably most of the sugarcane producing land is irrigated. There has been a lot of fund allocation for constructing dam and other irrigation works in Maharashtra for the last two decades or more. But the result is not at all effective mainly because it is alleged that a lot of money have been diverted from irrigation allotment of the state. In case of paddy a kg of rice requires 5000 litres of water. If sugar cane or rice is exported and India can export it as it has co