India - Crop losses push farmers to the brink of despair
Delli Balaji, 32, and his uncle Dhanapal Ravishankar, 55, stare at their fields. They are shareholders in 30 acres of agricultural land in the tiny village of Poovalambedu in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvalluvar district that borders Andhra Pradesh. Their 10 acres of paddy crop have dried up and their cows have begun to make a meal of it.
“What can we do but watch?” asks Balaji with a forced smile. “This is the second paddy crop that we have sown. For the first one, we did dry sowing, anticipating rains in August. But the very next day it rained and the crop was destroyed.” Dry sowing is planting paddy by simply scattering the seeds in the soil, instead of sprouting saplings and transplanting them to the fields. Paddy, when dry sown, requires less standing water than when transplanted. “In September we sprouted paddy saplings and transplanted them. But there was simply no rain. Everything dried up,” Balaji rues.
Ravishankar says these are bad times. “Last year there were floods and this year there have been no rains,” he says. “Since we are large farmers, we don’t get any help from the government. We are stuck in deep debt because the crops have been lost for two years in a row.”
Both farmers say that over 1,000 acres of crops in their taluk have been similarly destroyed. Farmers are holding their heads in distress, not knowing what to do. Balaji and Ravishankar have not lost hope yet. But those in the Cauvery delta — in the fertile region of Thanjavur, Nagapattinam and Trichy — are giving in to despair.
Canals in Panchalai village on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra border have dried up
The National Human Rights Commission issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government, based on news reports, that 106 farmers have died or committed suicide in the state due to crop failure. On January 10, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said the state would soon be declared as drought-hit. He also said 17 farmers had committed suicide due to crop losses.
“More than 50% of crops is lost,” says an official with the state Agriculture Department. “Wherever there are borewells or pumps, there will be good harvest. But farmers in areas dependent on rain and dams will suffer.”
“Crops in 50 lakh acres in Tamil Nadu have been lost,” says PR Pandian, president of the coordination committee of the All Farmers Associations of Tamil Nadu. “Demands for compensation are temporary measures. The only long-term solution is for states to adhere to the Cauvery Water Tribunal’s orders. Similarly with the Mullaiperiyar dam. The government has to take steps to ensure that we get our fair share of water.”
Farmers Balaji (left) and Ravishankar in Tiruvalluvar district are staring at heavy losses and debt as their paddy has dried up
The rains have indeed played truant in the state. In the Cauvery delta, the Northeast monsoon has been deficient by 66%. In the southern districts, which get some rain from the Southwest monsoon, it has barely rained and reservoirs and dams are at 4% of their capacity. Farmers have not even carried out sowing. In the northern districts, not only did the rains not come but Cyclone Vardah wreaked havoc on crops and plantations in December. Overall, the state has witnessed an almost 70% deficiency in monsoon this season, according to the regional Meteorological Department.
Water, Anyone?
Drinking water is on the verge of drying up. Authorities say that in the southern districts, there is drinking water to last only a month. The western districts are slightly better, with around 11% storage in the Mettur dam, the main source of water to these regions. The northern districts are also staring at severe water scarcity in the coming months. Panneerselvam met his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu on January 12, putting forth a request for additional water from the Telugu Ganga Project. Naidu, it is learnt, has promised to “do his best”, as the release of additional water is decided by the Krishna River Water Board.
A team of officials from the Centre are assessing the drought situation. Although a firm figure has not been arrived at, in terms of losses to crops and thereby the demand to be made to the Centre as compensation, senior leaders of the ruling AIADMK say they are confident that Tamil Nadu will get its due in the upcoming Union budget.
“The farming community has been affected to a great extent — this is unheard-of in the recent history of Tamil Nadu,” says a senior leader of the AIADMK. “A Central team is assessing the losses. The assessment should be based on the suffering of farmers. Drinking water crisis is acute. There is no feed for cattle either. The Centre must be liberal in providing assistance to Tamil Nadu.” The chief minister has already urged the Centre to sanction Rs 1,000 crore towards damages incurred in the wake of cyclone Vardah. A team has assessed the ground reality but the amount is yet to be awarded to the state.
Crisis Management
The government machinery has been quietly doing its job despite the political crisis in the state due to the long hospitalisation and death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
“By August we knew we were looking at an impending drought,” says a senior official in the Agriculture Department, who prefers not to be named. “The Mettur dam was not opened on June 12 as it was supposed to. Though Tamil Nadu took the battle to the Supreme Court for Cauvery water, we got only partial relief from Karnataka.”
A deficient monsoon has meant that paddy crops have dried up across the state
The state government released a package of Rs 54 crore to help save the kuruvai crop — a short term crop, mostly paddy, that is sown in the Cauvery delta. “This package was full of subsidies to help farmers irrigate their crops using their borewells or from wells in neighbouring fields. We provided subsidised PVC pipelines and subsidies for transplanting of paddy saplings using machinery, so that farmers would not lose the season. As against an expected 3 lakh acres, a total of 3.1 lakh acres in the delta region were cultivated and harvested,” says the agriculture official.
Then it was time for the samba crop — a longer crop season from August to January when a variety of crops are cultivated. By September, cultivation should have been over but there was little water in the Mettur dam. “With the help of academics in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), we asked farmers in the delta area to switch to dry sowing instead of transplantation this year,” says the official. “70% of the area, about 6 lakh acres, was brought under dry sowing this time.” This was coupled with the release of water from the Mettur dam in September.
Water from the dam flows in three directions — the Grand Anaicut canal that irrigates southern Thanjavur and Pudukottai; the Vennaru basin that caters to Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts; and the Cauvery basin irrigating upper Thanjavur, upper Tiruvarur and other areas.
“We released water for six days each in Vennaru and Cauvery basins as these are bigger canals that irrigate a lot of farmlands,” says the official. “We ensured the release of water just as direct sowing was done. We managed to save a large area of paddy despite the rains failing.”
For the second time in Tamil Nadu’s history, the government announced a relief package of Rs 64 crore for the samba crop season. Farmers who adopt direct sowing would get a subsidy of Rs 500 per acre. Weeds are an issue with dry sowing, so weedicides too were subsidised. In December 2016, the TNAU advised farmers to spray PPFM bacteria on their paddy — this prevents evaporation and ensures that the crop does not wither away for 10-15 days.
Simultaneously, the district administration was revved into action to bring as many farmers as possible under crop insurance scheme. “12.8 lakh farmers — more than 80% of farmers in the delta region — were brought under the ambit of crop insurance within a three-month period from September to December,” says the official
Now the state government is conducting ground surveys to assess crop losses, as per new guidelines issued by the Centre. “It is a three-step process,” says K Satyagopal, commissioner, revenue administration. “The third step is going on in all districts. The ground truth data (verifying a satellite image with what is on the ground) must be collected in 10% of the affected villages. That process is on.”
No Long-Term Plans
The state, while dealing efficiently with immediate crises, is far from effective when it comes to long-term planning for water management. In December 2015, unprecedented rainfall meant that over one lakh cusecs of water was let into the sea through the Adyar river, flooding large parts of Chennai and surrounds. Most dams and reservoirs across the state have not been desilted since they were built. Canals and waterways are clogged with waste and debris. Lakes and tanks are encroached at will. River water, more often than not, is not potable as sewage and industrial effluents have polluted it.
“No work is being done to safeguard water resources and we don’t know where the funds allocated for this are going,” says Pandian. “Tanks and lakes have not been desilted for decades. How will groundwater levels rise? Unless the government takes effective steps, Tamil Nadu will be destroyed in the coming years. How can anyone live without water?”
The CM said the state would set aside Rs 3,400 crore for desilting and restoration of water bodies, which would also help agricultural labourers get employment. The state would take up schemes to the tune of Rs 160 crore in urban areas and Rs 350 crore in rural areas to mitigate drinking water crisis, and Rs 25 crore would be given to the Public Works Department to improve the ground water table. In order to ensure employment, the number of working days under the MNREGA scheme will also be increased to 150 days from 100 days, said Panneerselvam.
For now, farmers are trapped in a debilitating debt cycle. “We invested Rs 2.5 lakh in paddy crop in 2014 and got returns of Rs 6 lakh,” says Balaji, the farmer from Poovalambedu. “In 2015, we had to go in for a different variety of rice called ADT-39 because the rains arrived late. From an investment of Rs 3 lakh, we got a return of Rs 4 lakh. In 2016 we invested Rs 2.5 lakh but the returns are zero.” Balaji and Ravishankar are unable to repay their loans — Rs 1.8 lakh taken from cooperative banks, Rs 2.5 lakh from nationalised banks and Rs 4 lakh from local rice mill owners who charge an exorbitant interest rate of up to 24%. “Everyone is in debt, especially to the rice mill owners,” says Ravishankar. “They give loans without a fuss but charge high interest rates because they know we have nowhere else to go. We are dependent on them.”
Balaji and Ravishankar received Rs 10,000 as crop insurance in December. “The irony is that this is the insurance sum for 2014,” laughs Balaji. “The losses we suffered in 2015 and 2016 — god alone knows when they will arrive.”
Source - http://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com
