Addicted To Sugar

Despite a severe drought two years ago, Latur’s farmers prefer to grow water-guzzling sugarcane. Why?

- Kiran D. Tare

A MUSKY BAD ODOUR suffocates your senses as you reach Harangul, some 10 km from Latur. It comes from the Manjra sugar mill, an indication that sugar cane crushing is in full swing in the city. Latur is the same city which two years ago had acquired the dubious distinction of being the “parched city”. Now, it is ringed with lush fields of ‘water-guzzling’ sugarcane thanks to a spell of decent rains last year. Seven of the 11 sugar mills here are running day and night. At the same time, there are more borewells being dug than ever before.

After the drought, experts had flagged water-intensive sugarcane cultivation as a major reason for the drought. In fact, the Water and Irrigation Commission, headed by Madhav Chitale, had recommended banning it in the entire Marathwada region (of which Latur is a part) a couple of years ago. Chitale, a former chairman of the Central Water Commission, says that sugarcane is draining Marathwada’s groundwater, a precious commodity in a region with irregular rainfall. “Sugarcane now uses about 70 per cent of Marathwada’s irrigation water,” he points out. Water expert Pradeep Purandare, a former professor at the Water and Land Management Institute in Aurangabad, agrees that there is a connection between sugarcane and the drought.