Abstract
IN a pamphlet entitled “Food and Irrigation Problems affecting India in General and Bombay in Particular”, Rao Bahadur N. S. Joshi discusses ways of meeting the estimated requirements of 1971. He is concerned mainly with the engineering aspects of the irrigation presumed to be needed; and though the nutritional discussion is mainly in terms of crop area and tonnages, the need for improved diet is not neglected. On account of the great distances, a general transfer of food from 'surplus' to 'deficit' provinces is impracticable. The solution is, in the author's view, a great increase in irrigation ; but in Bombay it is not possible to extend greatly the kind of barrage-and-eanal irrigation that has been a spectacular success in the river-plains regions. The pamphlet may be regarded as a reasoned critique of canal irrigation. Contour cultivation (bunding) may increase yields in hilly areas, but the crops suitable for upland cultivation are grains of low nutritional value, of which Bombay normally has a surplus ; and contouring is incompatible with storage from catchments. The ultimate solution for Bombay Province, therefore, is a very great increase in the number of small wells. The author suggests how these might be planned and financed, and in addition he shows how barrage and water-storage schemes could be provided so as to make the greatest possible use of all water resources. The pamphlet is stimulating, and has much value as a source of information regarding the current status and economics of irrigation and food-production in various provinces of India. The reader is left with the feeling that the main difficulty is social rather than engineering.
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Water Supply and Food in India. Nature 157, 330–331 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157330e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157330e0