Maharashtra, facing a grave water scarcity in the wake of two years of deficient monsoon rains, is the largest water guzzler among India’s major sugarcane-producing states. According to Lucknow-based Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR), a body under the agriculture ministry, Maharashtra, which produces over a third of country’s annual sugar output of 25 million tonnes, consumes 292 litres per kg of sugarcane.
This implies that about 2,450 litres of water are required to produce 1 kg of sugar in the state (given the sugar recovery rate of 12%) against 990 litres in the case of Uttar Pradesh.
“Maharashtra performs a bit better than Uttar Pradesh in terms of sugarcane yield, but a huge quantity of water is used for growing the crop which is unsustainable in the long run,” SK Shukla, principal scientist (agronomy), IISR, told FE.
Uttar Pradesh produces about 29% of the country’s sugar output. Karnataka, another major sugarcane producing state, requires 266 litres of water to produce 1 kg of sugarcane while only 181 litres of water is consumed in Tamil Nadu for the same purpose. Last year the southwest monsoon was “deficient” in sugarcane-producing Maharashtra and Karnataka, which had led to huge water scarcity.
The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in its price policy report on sugarcane had noted that sugarcane being a water-intensive crop and water becoming increasingly scarce, it is advisable that cane productivity needs to be optimised not only per unit of land but also per unit of water. The CACP had recommended taking up drip irrigation and fertigation on a much higher priority in the drought-prone belts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. These measures would help save 40-50% water, 30% fertilisers and about 30% energy, along with raising sugarcane productivity by 25-50% , the commission reckoned.