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News Alerts | Shadow of Drought on Delayed Monsoon

Shadow of Drought on Delayed Monsoon

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published Published on Sep 17, 2009   modified Modified on Sep 17, 2009

A good reason why we must not rejoice the late resumption of monsoon rains is that much of the damage is already done and is irreparable. In over 60 percent of India’s agricultural belt, particularly in the North-Western parts, there will be no rabi harvest. Hence, late arrival of rains hardly mitigates the challenges of lower agricultural production, shrinking of rural purchasing power, high inflation of food prices and loss of livelihoods.  

The issue was discussed threadbare during the State Agricultural Ministers’ meet on 21 August, 2009. Until a day earlier, the rainfall deficit was 26% resulting in substantial loss of sown area in kharif 2009 and 246 districts had been officially declared as drought affected. A series of measures to combat the grim state of affairs included formulating a ‘Crop Plan’ for the early rabi and summer crops, and a ‘Seed Requirement Availability and Supply Plan’, implementation and completion of existing irrigation related schemes including micro-irrigation, making clean drinking water available and issuing of additional Kisan Cards in collaboration with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). The results of all this will surely take a long time to show.

Eleven worst-affected states so far have altogether sought additional Central assistance of Rs. 72,313.62 crore this year for relief including diesel subsidy to farmers. The worst affected states have been Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. This year, high rainfall areas like Bihar and well-irrigated areas like Punjab and Haryana too have been affected. A draft report by the agriculture ministry, however, said the Aila cyclone that hit West Bengal and other east Indian states in May, 2009 disturbed the normal monsoon pattern just after it set in and 'discharged the system completely'. The diagnosis may or may not be accurate but the situation strengthens the case for updating India’s weather forecasting and early warning systems with adequate and urgent investments and improved coordination between agencies like the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), and the India Meteorological Department (IMD), among others.

Apart from the immediate reason, i.e., deficit monsoon, a number of factors have contributed to the crisis at hand. Excessive cultivation of crops like rice and sugarcane due to price and input incentives—and an almost willful neglect of the traditional drought hardy crops like the millets, pulses and coarse grain—have already resulted in overexploitation of groundwater. The Grace (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission of NASA that uses two satellites flying along the same orbit found that in the country's north-west, including the capital Delhi, the water table is falling at a rate of about 4 cm (1.6 inches) per year. Demand for water for irrigation has increased overtime due to changes in the cropping patterns that leads to over-exploitation of groundwater.

The situation has worsened because India has consistently neglected rainfed cropping that account for 48 per cent of the total area under food crops and 68 per cent of the area under non-food crops. Support in terms of fertiliser subsidies, price support and procurement seldom reach the rainfed farmers. About 68% of the country is prone to drought in varying degrees.

If we don’t want to treat droughts as seasons, we will have to take some concrete steps for progressive farming in dryland areas, which includes implementation of elaborate watershed projects, crop insurance delivered through smart cards and policy-based encouragement to grow dryland crops such as pulses, maize, millets etc., which rely less on irrigation and other expensive inputs. 

The following links and resources tell the whole story of India’s drought 2009, the policy muddle and the controversies surrounding it:

Detailed Action Points Drawn for Kharif and the coming Rabi Crops, State Agriculture Ministers’ Conference Concludes, 21 August, 2009, Press Information Bureau, http://www.pib.nic.in/release/rel_print_page1.asp?relid=52061        

A home-grown drought by Ravleen Kaur (2009), Down to Earth,
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover.asp?foldername=2009091
5&filename=news&sid=39&sec_id=9
 

Report of Sub-Committee on More crop and income per drop of water, Ministry of Water Resources, October 2006, http://cwc.gov.in/main/webpages/3.doc

Drought-hit States seek more Central aid by Gargi Parsai, The Hindu, 11 September, 2009, http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/11/stories/2009091150420100.htm

Review and Analysis of Drought Monitoring, Declaration and Management in India by JS Samra, Working Paper 84, Drought Series, Paper 2, International Water Management Institute, http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/droughtassessment/files/pdf/WP%2084.pdf

GDP and India’s hungry underbelly by Suman Sahai, The Asian Age, 9 September, 2009,
http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinio
n/op-ed/gdp-and-india%E2%80%99s-hungry-underbelly.aspx

The Threat of Drought-driven Inflation by CP Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh, Macroscan, 24 August 2009, http://macroscan.com/fet/aug09/fet210809Drought.htm

Cyclone Aila hit India's normal monsoon pattern, Indo Asian News Service, 8 September, 2009,
http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20090908/957/tod-cyclone-aila-
hit-india-s-normal-mons.html

India's water use 'unsustainable' by Richard Black, BBC, 13 August, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/default.stm

Drought in India: Challenges and Initiatives, prepared by Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programme (2001-2008), http://www.empowerpoor.com/downloads/drought1.pdf

Will the Impact of the 2009 Drought Be Different from 2002? by Tushaar Shah, Avinash Kishore, Hemant P, Economic and Political Weekly, September 12, 2009 Vol. XLIV No. 37, http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/13907.pdf

 

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