Paddy and sugarcane emptying India’s water resources

Here are the key findings of a recent study done by agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, and Gayathri Mohan. It has been published as a working paper by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

• Paddy (in Punjab) and sugarcane (in Maharashtra) are India’s most water-guzzling crops, using up 60% of the country’s total irrigation water resources. However, procurement policies and water and power subsidies are skewing profitability and distorting crop decisions.
• If we can reduce of the water usage of paddy and sugarcane, we can solve the water problem, since agricultural usage accounts for at least 80% of total water resources.
• Paddy farmers in Punjab need thrice the amount of irrigation water used by farmers in Bihar to produce one kilogram of rice. Punjab faces rapidly increasing groundwater depletion at a rate of up to 120 cm per year. Yet, the government’s robust paddy procurement policy and farmers’ access to highly subsidised power for irrigation means that rice cultivation on a per hectare basis remains high in Punjab.
•  No State is willing to reform power subsidies. State electricity boards are in the red because of subsidised power for farmers and power is being stolen by others (in the name of agriculture) for non-agricultural purposes.
• If we have metering or charging for water usage, then farmers will realise it is not free of cost, and there will be a more judicial use of water and an incentive to diversify to less water-intensive crops. Farmers will shift to corn, which uses one-fifth the amount of irrigation water in comparison to rice, if they can be sure they will be able to sell it at a profit.
•  Irrigation water productivity of Maharashtra’s sugarcane is lower than crops such as cotton, tur or groundnut. Sugarcane uses almost two-thirds of the State’s irrigation water. With guaranteed irrigation and sales, cane farmers in Maharashtra are reluctant to change to other crops.
• In order to align cropping patterns better, marketing opportunities for sugar and procurement policies for rice must be strengthened in water-rich States, and marketing risks of less water intensive crops reduced. Farmer incomes should be supported with direct benefit transfers rather than water and power subsidies.

The ICRIER team has also completed work on a water atlas, to be published soon by NABARD, which will track the water usage of ten major crops.

(This post is based on an item published in The Hindu dated May 6, 2018.)

Note that the main points of the quoted study are already known. The study only gives scientific support to what we know:

• Giving free power to farmers is not a good idea. Farmers tend to overuse their water resources and eventually they will pay a heavy price for it.
• The water table in Punjab and elsewhere in the country has been falling rapidly.
• Farmers tend to over-irrigate their fields. Too much water actually carries away the fertilizer needed by the plant.

2018 WHO Report on Air Pollution

On May 2, 2018, the World Health Organisation released an update of the global air pollution. The report summarised 2016 data for 4300 cities.

Key findings of the Report:

• Around 90% of people worldwide breathe polluted air.
• Over the past 6 years, ambient air pollution levels have remained high and approximatively stable, with declining concentrations in some part of Europe and in the Americas.
• Around 7 million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections, including pneumonia.

• Over 3 billion people – most of them women and children – are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes.
• Many of the world’s megacities exceed WHO’s guideline levels for air quality by more than 5 times, representing a major risk to people’s health.
• The highest ambient air pollution levels are in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and in South-East Asia, with annual mean levels often exceeding more than 5 times WHO limits, followed by low and middle-income cities in Africa and the Western Pacific.
• Africa and some of the Western Pacific have a serious lack of air pollution data. For Africa, data was identified for only 8 of 47 countries in the region.
• Europe has the highest number of places reporting data.
• In general, ambient air pollution levels are lowest in high-income countries, particularly in Europe, the Americas and the Western Pacific. In cities of high-income countries in Europe, air pollution has been shown to lower average life expectancy by anywhere between 2 and 24 months, depending on pollution levels.

The Report added:

Air pollution does not recognize borders. Improving air quality demands sustained and coordinated government action at all levels. Countries need to work together on solutions for sustainable transport, more efficient and renewable energy production and use and waste management. WHO works with many sectors including transport and energy, urban planning and rural development to support countries to tackle this problem.

Political leaders at all levels of government, including city mayors, are now starting to pay attention and take action. The good news is that we are seeing more and more governments increasing commitments to monitor and reduce air pollution as well as more global action from the health sector and other sectors like transport, housing and energy.

WHO will convene the first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health (30 October – 1 November 2018) to bring governments and partners together in a global effort to improve air quality and combat climate change.

The 20 Most Polluted Cities of the World (based on PM 2.5):

Rank	City	Country
1	Zabol	Iran
2	Gwalior	India
3	Allahabad	India
4	Riyadh	Saudi Arabia
5	Al Jubail	Saudi Arabia
6	Patna	India
7	Raipur	India
8	Bamenda	Cameroon
9	Xingtai	China
10	Baoding	China
11	Delhi	India
12	Ludhiana	India
13	Dammam	Saudi Arabia
14	Shijiazhuang	China
15	Kanpur	India
16	Khanna	India
17	Firozabad	India
18	Lucknow	India
19	Handan	China
20	Peshawar	Pakistan

Key Findings of the Report on India:

• There is not only widespread air pollution in urban India, but also the air quality monitoring is deficient. 
• The report ranks 10 Indian cities among the 20 most polluted ones globally.
• While Delhi comes in at number six, Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya and Patna are ranked ahead of it, by PM 2.5 levels. And yet, Kanpur, Faridabad and several other pollution-choked cities have only one PM 2.5 monitoring station each, while Delhi has several.

The report had words of praise for India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, which has provided 37 million women living below the poverty line with LPG connections.