WASTE OF WATEK 81 



that, owing to causes arising out of the war, there 

 was likely to be a food shortage in India, and every 

 effort was made to induce the people on these canals 

 to grow food crops. Later in the year it became clear 

 that, in addition to other causes, a serious deficiency 

 of rain was accentuating the shortage of food. In 

 the Godavari Canals that year there was sufficient 

 water to irrigate a very large area of Kharif (summer) 

 crops, but the great bulk of that water was not taken 

 up, and it was estimated that water sufficient to 

 irrigate 20,000 acres was run down the canals unused 

 and found its way back again into the river. In this 

 way Es.20 lakhs worth of potential produce was lost 

 to the country on a canal which had been opened 

 seven years previously. This is typical of what 

 happens for years on new canals ; but this might be 

 tolerated if it were likely that the land-owners would 

 in time be in a position to make good use of the 

 water. The experience on the older canals is not 

 encouraging in this respect. Wet cultivation requires 

 far more capital than dry cultivation. For effective 

 work the land must be levelled and in many cases 

 drained, tillage is more exacting, and the handling of 

 the valuable crop^ more costly. Few of the land- 

 holders have the necessary capital for the purpose, 

 and few have the requisite skill or business capacity 

 to grow the more valuable crops successfully ; and 

 their efforts to grow sugar-cane are often lamentable. 

 There is a small number of really skilled cultivators 



who grow good crops of about 50 tons of cane to the 



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