Drought, Floods and way ahead!

Efforts taken by the Government: The policymakers and government machinery have geared up for making arrangements for timely availability of seeds and targeting for completion of sowing by the end of November. They are also preparing for the seeds for the Kharif crop in 2010. Despite the Government's efforts at this stage, imports of sugar to the tune of 5-7 million tons seem inevitable. Imports of grains may not be needed, given the current level of stocks, but if India faces another year of bad monsoon, the situation may be precarious.   

A wake-up call for policy makers!
- Our policy makers need to think of a strategy that can give the nation a better "drought proofing" of our agriculture. This can be done by urgently tapping groundwater resources through shallow tube wells in the eastern region so that pressure on Punjab-Haryana belt for common rice can be reduced.

- The NASA satellites have lately shown that north-west India has been experiencing a fall in its groundwater to the extent of 15 inches each year during 2002-08. Increased storage facility, both for grains as well as for water, would be another important policy lesson to be learnt. Increased storage capacity for grains would help in reduce wastage of stored grains. Modern bulk handling facilities, preferably under the private sector, coupled with warehouse receipt system, need to be encouraged with capital subsidy schemes (as in cold storages). Similar encouragement needs to be given for rural godowns that can be operated through panchayats or farmers grain companies.

- Weather-indexed insurance schemes need to be propagated at large scale so that peasantry can be extended a reasonable insurance cover.

- The Government also needs to invest in R&D to develop drought resistant seeds, invest in infrastructures via roads, invest in irrigation projects and streamline the public distribution system and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which would go a long way to help the poor in periods of such distress.