Stanford University

*** Ph.D. Thesis/ Oral Defense ***

Water-Food-Energy Challenges in the Face of a Growing Sugar Industry in Central India

Ju Young Lee

Wednesday, April 10, Y2E2 300, 1:00pm 

Y2E2 300

Department of Earth System Science

Advisor: Dr. Steve Gorelick & Dr. Rosamond Naylor

Water, food, and energy constitute a critical nexus that is central to sustainable development goals. India, on the verge of becoming the world's most populous nation, faces unprecedented demands for these resources, reflecting broader global challenges and offering a unique case for detailed investigation. This doctoral research delves into the water-energy-food nexus with a specific focus on India’s sugar industry, which is of major importance to India, yet an underexplored sector from a nexus perspective.

The thesis targets three distinct gaps in knowledge that are central to analysis of India’s provision of water, energy, and food. The first chapter examines the political economy of the sugar industry, highlighting the paradox of promoting sugar production amidst a sugarcane production surplus, and investigates the challenges nationally and in the state of Maharashtra, a principal sugar-producing region. The second chapter addresses the critical data gap in sugarcane mapping by using crowdsourced data, high-resolution imagery, and machine learning to produce more accurate sugarcane area maps for the Bhima Basin, a major sugarcane cultivation region in Maharashtra. The third chapter develops a hydro-economic model for the Bhima Basin. This effort combines a hydrologic model with financial (market perspective) and economic (societal perspective) analyses to assess the spatial targeting of drip irrigation subsidy and adoption. This analysis offers insights for policymakers to refine their strategy on drip irrigation for enhancing farmer income, urban water supply, third-party benefits, and biofuel production.

This interdisciplinary work views the Indian sugarcane industry from various perspectives that include political economy, food security, government policy incentives, sugarcane mapping, and hydrologic-economic modeling. New methods and results contribute a quantitative understanding of the coupled water, food, and energy system, providing insights into sustainable development of the sugar industry. This research is a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners engaged in these fields, particularly those who focus on India’s sugarcane sector.