Lot has been written about sugarcane and drought. HarishDamodran in IE has argued that sugarcane is a scapegoat. The crux of the argument was that the area under sugarcane in Marathwada is about 2% and water-usage in sugarcane occurs over large number of days compared to other crops. Vernacular media in Maharashtra and social media public opinion seems to be critical of sugarcane. I always had a simpler question in mind. In total available/utilized water in Marathwada agriculture, how much goes to sugarcane. And I was not able to get the answer. So I decided to search for numbers to find something. Table 1 : Estimates water usage Crop Share in total area under the crop (2014-15) water requirement (in mm) water requirement (in meter) Area under crop in Marathwada (in sq meter)(10000 sq m=1 hectare) total water consumption (in cubic meter) Share (%) Kh Jowar 5 600 0.6 3664000000 2.2E+09 6
Guiding light for the philosopher is the consistency or non-self contradicting nature of arguments. This blog attempts to see the issues under consideration from the lens of consistency and contradiction. The objective is to point out inconsistencies and contradiction. Sometimes, I might suggest a possible improvement, but it is not an imperative.