Unseasonal rains, hailstorm and strong winds that lashed in three phases in practically all parts of the country beginning the end of February have already done extensive damage to the standing crops. With the crop damage extending to over 181 lakh hectares in 14 states, crop losses have dealt a severe blow to farmers.
According to preliminary estimates of the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have taken the maximum brunt, followed by Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Crop losses have also been reported from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Uttarakhand.
Public memory is very short. While it is being said that the present spell of unseasonal rains is the worst in the last 25 years, the fact is that unseasonal rains accompanied by hailstorm had done extensive damage to standing crops in 24 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh and 18 lakh hectares in Maharashtra only last year, in March 2014.
While 43 farmers had committed suicide in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh (and adjoining Uttar Pradesh) and another 40 in Marathwada region of Maharashtra last year, the death toll this year from the unseasonal rains in March exceeded 67 in Uttar Pradesh alone. In addition, death on the farm have also been reported from Rajasthan, MP and Maharashtra. But the loss to human lives is no indicator of the severity and extent of the crop damage the country has witnessed. It is the extensive damage to standing wheat, oilseeds and pulses and to fruits and vegetables from hailstorm that has aggravated the agrarian crisis.
Although Prime Minister Narendra Modi did assure farmers of immediate help and relief when he spoke to them in his radio programme Mann ki Baat on March 22, I am reminded of an insensitive remark made last year by the former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar when he said unusual rains and hailstorms are not uncommon and, therefore, appealed to farmers to show courage. But Pawar was quick to assess the damage accruing to sugar mills from a reduced sugarcane harvest even before the expert teams had visited the affected regions and assessed the crop losses.
What has made the difference this year is that besides the media repeatedly highlighting the extensive damage to standing crops, the NDA is keen to ward off the anti-farmer tag it had earned especially after its failure to provide 50 per cent profit in the minimum support price (MSP) that it had promised before the elections. With the government already under flak for pushing in an anti-farmer land acquisition bill, it swung into action to reverse its unpopular image of being farmer unfriendly.
Aerial surveys were conducted, top ministers travelled to the affected areas, chief ministers were quick to announce a series of measures including deferring interest payments on crop loans, waiver of electricity bills, immediate assessment of crop losses, and came up with promises of a higher compensation package.
Higher relief
In the past, we have seen farmers receiving relief cheques of Rs 8, Rs 10, Rs 215, Rs 1305 and so on. Year after year, we have read news reports of how farmers who have seen their crops affected by inclement weather had been poorly compensated by indifferent state governments. After months of waiting, when a farmer gets cheque that is not even worth presenting before a bank, it only shows the contempt and cruelty by which the farming class is treated.
It is, therefore, heartening to see this year a lot more seriousness to help the affected farming families. Already, many states have announced a higher relief than what is spelled out under the provisions of the State Disaster Relief Fund.
But for nearly 25 years, I have watched with dismay the reluctance on the part of successive governments to provide for any meaningful crop insurance plan for farmers. While in urban areas, insurance companies have appropriate plans to provide cover for every individual, house and automobile, for farmers, the crop losses are assessed only at the block level. A farmer at best can get compensation for an average crop loss suffered in a block even if his own loss in his crop field is several times higher. This is primarily the reason why farmers have never been enthused to take to crop insurance. This has to be reworked to make it more attractive and useful.
The government must, therefore, make it mandatory for all foreign companies that are keen to invest in India following the approval for 49 per cent FDI in insurance to at least provide 40 per cent investment for insuring every individual farm. If they resist, these companies should not be allowed into the country.
At the same time it must hike the total crop insurance allocation from the existing Rs 3,000 crore, which is awfully inadequate. Loopholes in the existing crop insurance programme have already been brought out by an expert committee headed by former agriculture secretary P K Mishra, who is now in the PMO. I see no reason now why crop insurance cannot be turned into an effective tool to compensate weather-related crop losses.
