Fwd: Thirsty sugarcane in dry Marathwada means a loss of 2 million farmer livelihoods

[Nemani Chandrasekhar]

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Himanshu Thakkar <ht.s...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 6:17 PM
Subject: Thirsty sugarcane in dry Marathwada means a loss of 2 million farmer livelihoods
To: "Water...@yahoogroups.com" <water...@yahoogroups.com>, india-ej <indi...@googlegroups.com>, "indiaclim...@googlegroups.com" <indiaclim...@googlegroups.com>, ican-india <ican-...@googlegroups.com>, jalsamvaad <jalsa...@googlegroups.com>, punjabec...@googlegroups.com, KICSagri <kics-agr...@googlegroups.com>

Dear All,

It is indeed disturbing that in this drought year, sugar factories in drought prone Marathawada region in Maharashtra is going to crush record sugarcane, all that water guzzling crop grown in the dry region. This water, if put to alternative use of farming for pulses or oilseeds or millets could provide much better economic, social, ecologic benefits in sustainable way and also livelihood to 2 million farmers of the region. 

See Article by Parineeta Dandekar of SANDRP: 

https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/thirsty-sugarcane-in-dry-marathwada-means-a-loss-of-2-million-farmer-livelihoods/

Amazingly neither the new Maharashtra government nor the Central government is taking any steps to stop this mindless practice. 

In fact the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of the Union Government last week decided to provide export subsidy for raw sugar at the rate of Rs 4000 per ton for at least 1.4 million tons. That is actually subsidy for export of water from drought prone area (when the exported sugar comes from Maharashtra or Karnataka) or from Ganga basin (when it comes from Uttar Pradesh)

Feedback, as usual, is welcome. 

Himanshu

--

Himanshu Thakkar

South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People,
c/o 86-D, AD block, Shalimar Bagh,
Delhi 110088, India

himansh...@iitbombay.org, ht.s...@gmail.com
http://sandrp.wordpress.com/ 

www.sandrp.in

www.facebook.com/sandrp.in

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