Surinder Sud: Parched solutions

FARM VIEW/ The government needs a long-term drought-proof strategy

India is no stranger to drought. The calamity has struck India 46 times between 1900 and 1999, and three times already since 2000.

Roughly, drought of varying intensity occurs once every two years in some part of the country or the other. Barring Kerala and some north-eastern tracts, no part of the country is immune to it.

The chronically drought-prone areas are also well delineated. They add up to about 120 million hectares, covering 185 districts (1,173 development blocks) in 13 states. These are the tracts where there are more than four drought years every decade.

Despite all this, drought proofing has not received the attention it deserves in the long-term planning process. In fact, once the drought is over, it tends to be forgotten.

This time again, although nearly one-third of the country has been threatened with drought, with the month of July going practically rain-free so far, the drought impact mitigation measures are yet to begin. The excuse being put forth is that it is for the state governments to declare an area drought-hit.

Besides, there is a long-drawn administrative procedure that must be gone through before the Centre can start backing up the state governments to combat the drought.

This procedure involves the states formally declaring an area as drought-hit and sending official memoranda to the Centre for relief assistance. This is followed by visits by central teams whose reports are considered by an inter-ministerial group headed by the agriculture secretary.

The group's recommendations then go for final approval from the high-level committee that is headed by the agriculture minister and has as members the ministers of finance and home and the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission.

All this, obviously, wastes time that could otherwise be gainfully utilised to alleviate the impact of the drought. The prime minister has already announced in Parliament that the Centre will wait till July-end to assess the situation. For some reason, the meteorological information, media reports and agricultural institutions' advisories all appear to be meaningless for the government.

Contingency plans to cope with drought have not been chalked out this year. Their basic framework exists and needs only to be updated and fine-tuned.

Fortunately, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been playing a pro-active role in this field this year. It has been issuing regular advisories, giving region-wise and farm activity-wise tips to farmers to contain drought damage to the minimum.

But the logistical support to put these advisories into practice (such as arranging for the seeds of suggested alternative crops and varieties) has to come from the local administration and is largely missing.

It is now clear that Rajasthan is going to be the worst sufferer this year even if the monsoon revives soon. Although food supply may not be an issue, considering the existence of over 31 million tonnes of foodgrain stocks with the Centre, the provision of drinking water and fodder will pose problems.

ICAR has suggested that advance action should be taken to start fodder banks. For this, the supplies would have to be sourced immediately. In fact, the avenues of procurement of alternative animal feeds also need to be identified right away. If this is delayed, as seems to be happening, it might be too late.

What is really required is a long-term strategy for drought mitigation. The Jodhpur-based Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) has prepared a blueprint for this. The parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, too, has made several suggestions in this regard in its 45th report presented to the House in December last.

Many other expert bodies have also made useful suggestions. All this translates basically into action on the following fronts:

• Rain water harvesting through watershed development and efficient use of available water through micro-irrigation systems such as drip and sprinkler irrigation.
• Development of common property resources for water and fodder, such as water ponds and grazing lands along canals and other water sources.
• Use of land based on its capability classification and promotion of less-water-requiring crops and other farm activities, including silvi-pastures, in drought-prone areas.
• Evolution of drought-resistant varieties of crops such as legumes (pulses), oilseeds and fodders.
• Development of infrastructure for value-addition and marketing of produce of the drought-prone areas to ensure adequate income generation.
• Promotion of non-farm activity, especially small-scale and cottage industry, to open up alternative employment avenues.
• Inter-linking of surplus river basins with deficit ones for even distribution of the country's water resources.

No doubt, some action is already underway on many of these aspects but, for tangible results, all this needs to be woven into a common drought-proofing programme.