Apollo over the Ganges an Agro-Industrial Complex for Increasing Food Production in India

The geological origin of the vast alluvial Ganges plain is sketched as the filled-in foredeep of the Himalayan mountains. The prevalence offamine conditions there, in spite of the excellent soil and year-round growing season and good ground water supply, is noted. Prof. Stout's diagnosis in terms of the need for energy from external nonagricultural sources is set forth. An example employing a 1000 Mwe power plant and grid for irgation pumping and nitrogen fixation, together with an improved strain of wheat from Mexico, is presented and some rough cost and benefit estimates are made. It appears that this single project, providing one additional crop each year on a tenth of the cultivated land, could lift the entire 200 million people of the Ganges Valley from semistarvation to a healthful diet level