The Hindu : Centre announces steps to tackle drought situation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 25, 2002

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Centre announces steps to tackle drought situation

By Gargi Parsai

The Union Minister of Agriculture, Ajit Singh, and the Minister of State, Hukumdeo Narayan Singh (extreme right), at the meeting of the State Agriculture and Relief Ministers called to discuss the drought situation, in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

New Delhi July 24. The Centre today declared its preparedness to face, what was described by the Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh, as the ``most widespread drought in 10 years or even longer''. Preliminary assessment showed that 320 of 524 districts monitored by the Agriculture Ministry had insufficient rainfall and there was no hope of substantial rains in northwest and central India till the end of the month. Kharif paddy, bajra and soyabean were the worst hit and Rajasthan is the most affected State in terms of area.

After a four hour-long meeting today with 12 States where kharif crop is under stress due to insufficient rainfall, Mr. Singh said the need of the hour was to provide farmers with alternative seeds. For relief, the guidelines of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) would be amended to include all categories of farmers rather than only the small and marginal farmers with two hectares. The agricultural input subsidy would also be made available to all farmers.

He said the NABARD and other cooperative banks would be asked to postpone recovery of dues and interest from stressed farmers. The Crop Insurance Scheme would cover non-loanee farmers too but the extension of the cut-off date (July 31) for their claims would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

He impressed upon sugar growing States, particularly his home State of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, to quickly pay sugarcane arrears to farmers which total Rs. 1000 crores.

The States which attended the meeting included Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa.

The Minister said the immediate requirement was to provide farmers alternative seeds to cover unsown area. As a one-time gesture, States would be allowed to release even ``truthfully labelled seeds'' for quick reach. ``At this point of time, farmers need rain, water, power, seeds and fertilizer,'' Mr. Singh said.

During the meeting, the affected States made an initial demand of 41 lakh tonnes of foodgrain under the food-for-work programme.

The meeting said special attention was required to ensure smooth functioning of the public distribution system. It was also decided that States would assess the extent of additional employment generation required and mobilise resources to meet the cash component for the scheme. The need to keep vigil on the prices of commodities was also underscored.

Earlier States expressed apprehension about the rabi crop if monsoon rains did not occur in August and September. While agreeing with them, Mr. Singh said, ``assured irrigation was not a replacement for monsoon. Monsoon rains are required to fill up rivers, reservoirs and raise ground water level.''

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