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Heat’s Killing As various parts of India witness one of the worst droughts in recent times, an above par monsoon, as early predictions indicate, is an imperative :: G Seetharaman hen a law usually reserved for times of reli- by another by Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorolgious, caste or political violence is used at a ogy. The Indian Meteorological Department will issue its foretime of water scarcity, you know how bad the cast later this month. problem is. In the past few weeks, Section 144 With the El Nino having peaked and expected to return to neuof the Code of Criminal Procedure has been im- tral conditions by the middle of 2016, economists and weather posed in Latur and Parbhani, both in the forecasters are cautiously hopeful. El Nino’s decline leads to an drought-stricken Marathwada region of Maharashtra, to pre- increase in the probability of the La Nina effect, or a cooling of vent the gathering of more than five people around water sup- the waters, which typically leads to improved rainfall. ply spots, thereby averting conflicts. These optimistic forecasts aside, the current scenario in parts These developments come at a time when the of the country are comparable to the drought of The current scenario 2002, says Bharat Sharma, coordinator of the Ininitial forecasts for this year’s monsoon may proin parts of the vide some hope to millions starved of water. In dia programme at the International Water Mancountry are 2014-15, India had a 12% deficit in rainfall, folagement Institute. He adds that it is about time comparable to the lowed by a 14% shortfall in 2015-16, thanks to the India improved the efficiency of water use. “We drought of 2002 El Nino weather phenomenon, which has parts should decouple our economic growth from our of the Pacific Ocean warming up, leading to lowwater use.” The ratio of water use to gross doer-than-average rainfall in countries like India and Australia. mestic product, measured in terms of cubic metres of water per This led 10 states to declare drought. The Supreme Court earlier dollar of GDP, between 1975 and 2000 was less than 0.1 in develthis week came down heavily on Gujarat for its delay in declar- oped countries, while in India it was well over 1. ing drought till April 1. Equally responsible for the recurring drought-like conditions Weather Risk Management Services, a private firm, has said is the government’s inefficient agricultural policy, as former that rainfall in June-September will be above normal in most Planning Commission secretary Naresh Chandra Saxena argues parts of the country, barring the Northeast. According to the (See Blame it on a Flawed Agri Policy, Too). As water, or the lack forecast, rains are expected to be more than 104% in most re- thereof, makes headlines day in and day out, ET Magazine visits gions, all four months of the monsoon season are likely to get Beed in Marathwada, Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh and Kolar above normal rains countrywide, and June could have the high- in Karnataka to understand how the people and local adminisest positive departure from normal. This forecast was backed tration are battling the drought.
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M A H A R A S H T R A
On a Drop and a Prayer Beed, among the most affected parts of drought-prone Marathwada region, has seen two straight years of poor rainfall and cannot afford another
50%
:: G Seetharaman l Beed
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f you did not know Dharmaraj Gade well, you would think that he does not have much to worry about in life. Blame it on his smile. It never leaves his face for more than a fleeting moment when he talks to us. But he does have a lot on his mind: his 1.3-hectare farm lies uncultivated; there is not enough water for his family, leave alone the field; and his future is far from certain. The only silver lining in his life is that he does not have to worry about feeding his four cows and oxen. They are at a fodder camp at Kumshi, 10 km west of Beed town in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. The government gives farmers like him `70 per animal per day for fodder and water at the camp. Gade’s cattle have been in this camp ever since it started over three months ago. These camps are the government’s short-term fix to prevent the farmer from getting rid of his cattle. There are 260 such fodder camps in Beed district, housing 2.8 lakh cattle. Gade, however, says that what the government gives him for his cattle is not enough. “The money I get is enough for 15 kg of fodder a day, but each of my animals needs 10 kg more.” Gade borrowed `10,000 last year to buy 12 packs of Bt cotton seeds at `930 a pack. But the yield was less than half of the year before, thanks to the lack of water. “I can’t even imagine sowing anything on my farm right now. We don’t have water to feed our cattle, where do we get water for our fields?” asks Gade. Behind the camp is a barren farm, which has been lying untilled for a while, with the soil in clumps. Next to the camp is a well with so little water that you can see the base of the well. There are 755 tankers supplying water for drinking and other domestic purposes to 1,086 villages and hamlets in Beed district every day. Each of these tankers does two trips a day and carries 12,000 litres on each trip. “The average distance for carrying water from the source to villages is 35 km. By the first week of June, it may go up to 45 km,” says Naval Kishor Ram, collector of Beed district. In 2015, Beed received less than 50% of its average annual rainfall of 670 mm. The previous year had only been slightly better with 55.6% of the average rainfall. The groundwater level in the district is 3.4 metres below the average water table of the last five years. A year ago, the level was 1.9 metres below the average
PHOTOS: G SEETHARAMAN
Rainfall deficit in 2015
Groundwater level
3.4 metres below the average water table of the last five years, compared to 1.9 metres in March 2015
Impact on Agriculture Yields in cotton and soybean dropped by 80% in 2015-16. 301 farmers committed suicide in Beed in 2015; and 46 this year
Short-term Measures The district administration created compartmental bunds on 25,000 hectares to conserve water in 2015-16 and plans to do the same on 1 lakh hectares this year It has set up around 260 fodder camps for cattle. There are 2.8 lakh cows, oxen and buffaloes in these camps and the government gives their owners `70 per animal per day to cover the cost of water and feed
755 tankers supply water every day to 1,086 villages and hamlets in the district. Each tanker carries 12,000 litres per trip and does about two trips a day
Long-term Measures Encourage inter-cropping of mung beans and black gram with cotton, and pigeon peas with soybean
Increase the coverage of micro irrigation, which is in only a fraction of the cultivable land now
“I can’t even imagine sowing anything on my farm right now. We don’t have water to feed our cattle, where do we get water for our fields?” Dharmaraj Gade, farmer
Rates have plummeted for cattle. If a farmer bought a pair of oxen for `80,000 last year, now they go for just about half that price in a fair near Beed
water table. Beed, along with Osmanabad and Latur, is the most waterstarved in the Marathwada region where the state government has declared “droughtlike” condition. Some ministers in the Devendra Fadnavis government visited these places last month. Among them was rural development minister Pankaja Munde, whose father Gopinath Munde was the biggest leader to emerge from Beed and, along with former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was one of the most influential Marathwada politicians. Of the two primary water sources for Beed—Manjra and Majalgaon—the former is dry and there is not much water left in the latter. According to a recent Press Trust of India report, there is only 5% water in Marathwada’s dams. The acute scarcity is evident in other parts of Maharashtra, too, which has been cited as a reason in a public interest litigation to shift the Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket matches out of the state. The Bombay High Court has for now allowed the first match in Mumbai on April 9.
Where are the Rains? The worst manifestation of the water crisis, which compounds crop failures, is farmer suicides. About 250 farmers have taken their lives in Marathwada in 2016, around 46 of whom were from Beed district. While figures for the same period last year were not available, 1,130 Marathwada farmers killed themselves in 2015 —which is almost twice the 2014 figure — and Beed accounted for 301. On March 23, Madhav Kadam, a 27-year-old farmer from Nanded district, also in Marathwada, committed suicide outside the Mantralaya, the state government’s headquarters in Mumbai, after being denied full compensation for the failure of his crop. Fifty-year-old Raghunath Mahakale consumed insecticide on the night of March 6 in his village Loladgaon in Beed. It was not the lack of government compensation, but the loans that he had taken that drove him to his death. He had taken a loan of `15,000
from a state-owned bank in 2012, and borrowed over `1 lakh from relatives to spend on his three daughters’ weddings, hoping to repay them with the income from his 1.2-hectare farm (1 hectare = 2.47 acres). But the cotton yield on his farm was not up to scratch. His 21-year-old son Sakharam says, due to water scarcity, his family’s annual income was only `60,000 in the last three years, a third of which went to maintaining their livestock. “There has been no water for three-four years. If we had enough water, we certainly wouldn’t be where we are. Our annual income could have been `1.5 lakh.” Sakharam is now working as a daily wage labourer, making `200-250 a day four times a week. According to a study done by Dilasa Janvikas Pratishthan, a non-governmental organisation working with farmers, 82% of respondents from families of farmers who committed suicide in Marathwada in 2014 pointed to drought as a natural calamity responsible for their woes. “The administration is more worried about water than about banks,” says Sanjeev Unhale, secretary, Dilasa, referring to the imposition of Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in Latur city and Parbhani, to prevent the assembly of more than five persons around GETTYIMAGES
A woman collecting water from a pit in a riverbed in Maharashtra
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K A R N A T A K A
Bone Dry While farmers are digging borewells up to 2,000 feet in Kolar in the south, in the northern interiors, 12 districts face the worst drought in 45 years
“The average distance for carrying water from the source to villages is 35 km now. By the first week of
June, it may go up to 45 km” Naval Kishor Ram, district collector, Beed water supply spots. While sugarcane is not as prevalent a crop in Marathwada as it is in western Maharashtra, there are about 70 sugar factories, says Unhale. But many of them were inactive in 2015-16. Of the 10 factories in Beed, only two were operational. Moreover, around 8,00,000 people from Beed migrated to western Maharashtra and other parts of the state and even to neighbouring states to work in sugarcane fields and transport sugarcane to factories. Mahadeo Sanap bought two oxen for `80,000 sometime last year and took them to Solapur, to carry sugarcane from farms to factories. While there is usually work between October and May, this time, Sanap had to return by January as the factories did not have enough sugarcane to process. He has come to the Tuesday fair at Hirapur near Beed to sell the Beed district oxen, but he is not too authorities hopeful. “Buyers are sayare asking ing `40,000-45,000 for farmers to the oxen. I won’t sell them inter-crop. for less than `65,000.” As people hope for a This will normal monsoon, the reduce the Beed district administrarisks in tion is encouraging farmfarming and ers to inter-crop moong increase pulse dal (mung beans) and urad production dal (black gram) with cotton, and tur dal (pigeon peas) with soybean. This will reduce the risks in farming and increase pulse production. Cotton accounts for nearly half of the net sown area of 7.4 lakh hectares in Beed and soybean a fourth. The yields in both crops fell by up to 80% in 2015. The government is trying to create more avenues for water conservation. Beed collector Ram says the government spent around `80 crore in 2015-16 on water conservation projects in the district, including building compartmental bunds on 25,000 hectares. This fiscal, the government hopes to cover 1 lakh hectares. The administration is also looking to extend the coverage of micro irrigation, which is more water-efficient than surface irrigation. Now, only 5% of the cultivable area in Marathwada is under micro irrigation. Notwithstanding the efforts by both the government and people, a lot hinges on this year’s monsoon. If the monsoon is not up to par, even the best water-conservation techniques and change in cropping patterns will not be able to make up for three back-to-back years of deficient rains. That may be a disaster that hasn’t struck in a century.
:: Indulekha Aravind l Kolar
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ows of plastic pots in bright colours and in different states of disrepair converge at a tap at Thotli village in Kolar district in Karnataka, though no owner is in sight. The water for the day has already been collected after a two-hour wait in the morning; these pots mark their place in the queue for the next day, explains Bhagyamma, who stays across the road from the public tap. She gets two pots of water from the tap and spends `8001,000 a week on buying water from a tanker. “We need at least 15 pots just for household needs. With cattle, it will be double,” she says. In the next village Thernahalli, Ramachandra Gowda, who grows tomatoes on two acres, says he had to dig 1,800 ft before he got to water in his borewell. “It’s getting worse. Last year, we had to dig 1,500 ft and this year it is 1,800-2,000 ft,” says Gowda, who also buys four tankers of water every four days at `1,000 for his crops. Gowda was among the 10,000 farmers from Kolar and Chikballapur in southern interior Karnataka, who had descended on Bengaluru last month to protest against drinking water crisis, after their 165-day of agitation in Kolar came to naught. They arrived in tractors and on bullock carts to drive home the point that they were suffering while the capital remained ignorant of their water woes. “We came to Bengaluru to ask for water, but got lathicharged in return,” says Gowda. Last September, all five taluks in Kolar district were declared drought-hit. According to a December 2015 report by a parliamentary standing committee on water resources, 23% of the groundwater
P H OTO S : I N D U L E K H A A R AV I N D
54%
Rainfall deficit in 2015
(NE monsoon, north interior Karnataka)
Groundwater level
2,000 ft Borewells are dug this deep this year in Kolar, as compared with 1,500 ft last year Impact on Crops 22 lakh hectares of rabi crops (cereals, pulses, oil seeds) hit in northern interior Karnataka. Dry spell affected 32 lakh hectares in the state
Short-term Measures `250 crore made available with district collectors in drought-hit regions to supply drinking water; `50 lakh given to every assembly constituency
72 fodder banks and gaushalas opened in northern interior Karnataka Requested the Centre to release `1,417 crore as compensation to farmers for rabi crop losses, to be disbursed directly to bank accounts
882 tankers supply drinking water to 385 villages in the state
Long-term Measures Construct 40,00 farm ponds, up from 22,000 in northern Karnataka, to conserve run-off water for farmers Increase rainwater harvesting to recharge groundwater
Tanker water used for irrigating crops
Borewell in a field in Kolar
Wean farmers away from waterguzzling crops like sugarcane
“With some taluks facing a drought for five consecutive years, a normal
monsoon is absolutely crucial. If it is below normal, all our efforts will go waste” Krishna Byre Gowda, agriculture minister, Karnataka
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Drinking water ATM in Kolar supplies a 20-litre can for `2
The long wait for water in Kolar
assessment units in Karnataka were found to be over-exploited, making it one of the nine states in the country where the groundwater levels had reached a critical stage.
Water, Anyone? While the drought-hit Kolar and Chikballapur regions might have got some relief during the north-east monsoon late last year, the northern interior districts of Karnataka continue to suffer from the worst drought the area has seen in years. “There was a 32% rainfall deficiency during the south-west monsoon and a 54% shortfall during the north-east monsoon in 12 districts of northern Karnataka. Together, it becomes the most severe deficiency the region has witnessed in the last 45 years,” says G Srinivasa Raju, director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre. Out of the 69 taluks in northern interior Karnataka, 62 have been declared droughthit during the rabi season. This year, 32 lakh hectares in the state
were affected by the dry spell during the south-west monsoon, while 22 lakh hectares were affected during the rabi season. The 12 districts in northern Karnataka bore the brunt of the failure of the rabi crop, with the loss estimated at over `7,200 crore. A 45% shortfall in reservoir levels and the drought in Maharashtra reducing the flow of the Krishna river into the Kabini catchment area were compounding woes, says Raju. “In the short-term, drinking water has to be provided, fodder banks opened and employment generation has to be stepped up through MGNREGA, while water-shed development works should be taken up as a long-term strategy,” he adds. Karnataka’s agriculture minister, Krishna Byre Gowda, identifies the same challenges in drought-relief measures. “Agriculturally, this is the off-season, so our focus is on providing drinking water to people, fodder for livestock and employment,” he says. For this, `250 crore has been made released as emergency funds with district collectors,
A farm pond to harvest water. Its construction is subsidised by government
person of the foundation. They are currently giving fodder for animals and supplying water to areas in north Karnataka where gram panchayats have approached their volunteers. “We intend to continue till the rains come,” adds Murty. In Kolar, the administration is supplying water in tankers to 36 villages. It has also set up 195 units, with reverse osmosis facilities, which are supplying drinking water at ` 2 for 20 litres, says additional deputy commissioner RS Pedapayya. “We also have the second highest number of farm ponds in the state. It supplements irrigation, even though it might not recharge the groundwater,” he says.
Dam on Paper
Local farmers say building the Yargol reservoir will solve their water woes
out of which `130 crore is still available. While `50 lakh has been released to each assembly constituency, another `50 lakh each will be released this month, says minister Gowda on the phone from Bidar, as part of his tour of the northern districts. “Anticipating the crisis to worsen next month, we have told the district collectors to procure fodder from wherever it is available and set up fodder banks. Chief minister Siddaramaiah has said that they should open these without waiting for the people to approach them.” So far, 72 fodder banks and some gaushalas have been opened in the drought-affected areas. Others, like the Infosys Foundation, have also stepped in to augment government efforts in providing drinking water. “The drought is very serious this year. Every day, we are making around 40 tanker trips but we want to take it to 100, if we find a good source of water,” says Sudha Murty, chair-
While temporary measures might provide relief, farmer associations want permanent solutions, such as the implementation of the Yargol project which, although commissioned by the then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy in 2006, is yet to see any progress beyond the laying of the foundation stone. The project involves building a composite dam across the Markandeya river near Yargol village, with a storage capacity of 787 TMC (thousand million cubic feet). “If the Yargol project is completed, Kolar’s perpetual water crisis will be resolved,” says K Narayana Gowda, state vice-president of the farmers’ organisation Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha. The association plans to renew their agitation for permanent potable water supply soon. “We will launch our next agitation in Kolar on April 15, with 15,000 people,” he says. In northern interior Karnataka, persuading farmers to look beyond water-guzzling crops like sugarcane remains a challenge while formulating long-term solutions to drought, acknowledges minister Byre Gowda. “In my conversations with farmers, when I ask them what crop will they grow next, they immediately say sugarcane, because it is the easiest to grow. We are encouraging them to use measures like micro irrigation, but I’m not sure there will be a structural shift in crops in the medium term,” he says. The prediction for the monsoon is expected in the third week of April and signs so far point to a normal monsoon, he says. “That is absolutely crucial for Karnataka, where some taluks have been facing drought for five consecutive years. If the monsoon is below normal, all our efforts would be in vain.”
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U T T A R
P R A D E S H
These Cows Aren’t Coming Home Drought-hit farmers abandon on the roads their weak cows dying of hunger There are multiple instances where cattle have died due to consumption of poisonous fodder or starvation
:: KP Narayana Kumar l Bundelkhand
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he nomenclature of “cow belt” appears appropriate when travelling past Jhansi into the villages of Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh. Herds of cattle can be seen at regular intervals when passing through the highway that connects the town with the rural parts of Bundelkhand. The cows stoically bear the heat and walk single file on either side of the highway. They sniff at the vegetables sold by the local vendors seated on the ground at makeshift marketplaces. They gaze at the cooks at roadside eateries, hoping they would offer something. The cooks carry on with their work and pay no attention even as the cows almost thrust their heads into the space where the grim men — profusely sweating in the heat — make rotis. The cows eat plastic and other kinds of refuse from garbage dumps across the district. Most of the animals appear weak. These emaciated cows are a symbol of the relentless misery suffered by the farmers of the region, which is hit by drought for successive years. The cow is revered here just as it is in most of north India. Yet Earlier, the the farmers have little choice but drought meant to let them loose on the streets indebtedness. as they cannot afford them any But this year longer. Most of them say that farmers are while they have become habitustruggling for ated to drought, having faced it over the last decade, food and water repeatedly this year can be counted as the toughest. The reason is that, while in earlier times, the drought meant indebtedness, this year they are struggling for food and water.
Parched Picture Instances of farmers committing suicide continue to be reported from several parts of Bundelkhand. But if the never-ending spate of selfdestruction was not tragic enough, many among those who have decided to live and fight it out now have to beg for food and water. A recent survey—led by the Yogendra Yadavheaded Swaraj Abhiyan—of households in seven districts of Bundelkhand confirmed that the situation has indeed hit rock-bottom. To begin with, a majority of respondents said “yes” to separate questions on whether they quarrelled over water, whether they had to spend more than an hour collecting water, and whether the quality of water had deteriorated. Almost 20% of the poorest respondents said they had gone hungry at least once in the last 30 days, while 14% of those classified as general respondents said they had gone hungry at least once during the said period. At least 17% of respondents said they had consumed rotis made of grass called fikara. The survey also confirmed multiple instances
55%
Rainfall deficit in 2015
Groundwater Level
3-5 metres The fall in groundwater level over last year. Only 45% of crop area has access to irrigation, with ground water as primary source
“There is a need to address larger issues such as distress migration and implementation of water-conservation measures” Sanjay Singh, head, Parmarth
Impact on Crops There is a severe fall in the production of kharif crops: urad by 90%, jowar by 80%, peanut by 70%. In rabi crops, wheat fell by 45%
Short-term Measures Food packets are distributed and community kitchens are set up
Tankers are pressed into service to provide water to households
Long-term Measure Revival and renovation of traditional water sources
“In better times I could hope for about 800 kg of wheat per acre. This year I got less
than 100 kg” Dwarka Seharya, a farmer in Lalitpur district
of death of cattle due to consumption of poisonous fodder or starvation. Since that survey, conducted in late 2015, the situation has only worsened. Activists in the region explain that one indicator of further degeneration is that workers who had migrated to cities preferred not to come home for this year’s Holi as they didn’t want to burden their already weighed-down families. Lakshmi Seharya, a mother of two, says that the decision to let loose a
cow and its calf was painful. But the choices are limited. “Should we look after the cows or the children?” she asks. Her husband Mahesh has taken another cow, the last one in their herd, to the next village to quench its thirst. All the wells in the Khadesra Khurd village in Lalitpur district where they live have dried up and most of the hand pumps are of no use as the water table has sunk low. Dwarka Seharya, a relative of Lakshmi, expresses his anguish at having to let loose the cow: “We touched its feet and then took it to a place where it could quench its thirst. That cow had given us milk for so many years. We do feel sad.” That these are desperate times are evident when he adds that in better times he could hope for about 800 kg of wheat per acre; this year he got less than 100 kg. Parmarth, an NGO that has been working towards water conservation in the region, is also setting up of community kitchens in several villages. One such kitchen has been started next to the Seharyas’ home by the side of the wheatfields. The community kitchen offers food twice a day to the elderly, the differently-abled and children of farmers who had migrated, mostly to
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Repeated hailstorms and drought have wiped out entire harvests in Bundelkhand
Blame it on Flawed Agri Policy, Too Why monsoon failure and climate change may not be the only triggers for the acute distress in rural India :: Naresh Chandra Saxena
Delhi, in search of work. “The village has almost been cleaned up of its able-bodied men and women. All of them have been forced to try their luck in the city. So the children and the elderly are now particularly vulnerable. This is why we decided to set up the kitchen,” says Chandra Prakash Niranjan, an activist with Parmarth.
Bovine Differences According to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, many of the cows abandoned by the farmers die a slow painful death. “They starve and thirst for water for days and when they are weak, the stray dogs attack them. Their carcasses are found at regular intervals by the highway to Jhansi,” said an official. But the buffalos have it much better due to a pragmatic emotion: economic viability. Manish Kumar, an activist with Parmarth who was associated with the Swaraj Abhiyan survey, said there were instances of buffaloes being released as well. But the While the ratio of the release of abandoned buffalos to cows would cows die a be 1:10. Another senslow death, ior official explained that while the cows the buffalos were hardly giving two have it much litres of milk a day, the better due to buffaloes provided up a pragmatic to 10 litres. As this emotion: writer journeyed economic through Lalitpur and viability Jhansi, he found that the buffaloes continued to be cared for and appeared stocky and well-fed, tethered to posts outside homes in the villages. As activists do their bit to make life liveable for the people of Bundelkhand, they call for some big-picture thinking to turn around the situation. For instance, they point to the fact that climate change has caused hailstorms repeatedly in the region, wiping out entire harvests, apart from the drought that has almost become a constant. “There is a need to address larger issues such as how we can tackle distress migration, climate change and how water-conservation measures need to be implemented. We need a larger perspective even as we deal with micro issues on a regular basis,” says Parmarth head Sanjay Singh.
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tra and paddy in Punjab. We need to reduce unrestricted mining of groundwater and ensure stricter implementation of environmentally sound cropping patterns. Drip irrigation and a water sprinkler approach, mulching and bed plantation, and construction of tanks and check dams should be promoted for water harvesting and conservation. The existing problems of rainfed regions, if not addressed in time, will get more acute in the coming years due to global warming and climate change. There would be a downward trend in the number of wet days in a year; in a country which gets rain only for less than 100 hours in a year (a year has 8,760 hours), this would be disastrous. We need to build efficient irrigation systems and waterconservation strategies in rainfed regions, through conjunctive use of surface and groundwater. Agriculture in semi-arid regions has to move from traditional, crop-centric farming to agri-pastoral-farm-forestry systems (fruit trees, shrubs, perennial grasses and small ruminants).
Involve the People
The government of India has announced several programmes in soil and water conservation but, when underecurring drought conditions in many parts of India are leadtaken by the agriculture department, these remain departing to starvation and distress migration. Rural poor are the mental in approach with no involvement of people. Mainteworst victims of crop failure, compounded by a slump in nance of the created assets suffers, as beneficiaries are not construction activities and non-availability of work in the motivated to assume responsibility for maintenance. WaterMGNREGA rural employment scheme. However, drought shed development programmes cannot succeed without full cannot be blamed entirely on monsoon failure or on climate participation of project beneficiarchange; a flawed agricultural poliies and careful attention to issues cy is a bigger causative factor in the of social organisation. collapse of farm and dairy producDespite the fact that MGNREGA tion in semi-arid regions. mandates that 80% of work must The policy approach to agriculbe related to local water conservature since the ’90s has been to setion and drought-proofing, the suscure increased production by subtainability and productivity of assidising inputs such as power, wasets created is never monitored. ter and fer tili ser; and by Result? The programme is reduced increasing the minimum support to creating short-term, unproducprice, rather than by building new tive employment with no focus on capital assets in surface irrigation, asset creation or soil and water rainwater harvesting, improving conservation. Its impact on agricredit for smallholders and evolvculture may even be negative, as ing new drought-resistant techalleged by the ministry of agriculnologies. This has shifted the proture. MGNREGA is characterised duction base from low-cost reby irregular flow of funds and high gions to high-cost ones, causing percentage of incomplete works. an increase in the cost of producAs work is left incomplete, bunds tion, regional imbalance and an There is a political reluctance to are washed away during the monincrease in the burden of storage control water-hungry crops in soon, which gradually accumuand transport of produce. low rainfall regions—like lates as silt in the riverbed downsugarcane in Maharashtra and hill, which in turn affects the nearPatchy Policies paddy in Punjab by check dams. The equity, efficiency and sustainMoreover, better governed ability of the current approach are states corner most of the funds irquestionable. Subsidies do not imrespective of low incidence of prove income distribution or the poverty in those states. Having demand for labour. The boost in better banking systems may be output from subsidy-stimulated one of the reasons why richer use of fertiliser, pesticides and wastates spend more MGNREGA ter has the potential to damage aqfunds. Government has inuifers and soils—an environmencreased, on paper, the number of tally unsustainable approach that days from 100 to 150 for droughtexplains the rising costs and slowaffected districts, but in Banda ing growth and productivity in ag(in Bundelkhand, one of the riculture. Policies have resulted in p o o re s t d i s t r i c t s o f U t t a r excessive use of capital on farms, Pradesh), the average number of such as too many tubewells in wadays the rural poor got work durter-scarce regions. Groundwater, ing 2015-16 was less than 20. as opposed to surface and sub-soil Most importantly, collective cawater, has become the main source pability is required for the manof irrigation, leading to more than agement of commons and for new 30% of the blocks in the country structures created with MGNREGA funds. Unfortunately, getting classified as semi-critical, critical or overexploited. As most projects have failed to generate sustainability because there is no effective control over the digging of tubewells in of the failure of government agencies to involve the people water-scarce regions, farmers are borrowing money from and build their social capital. informal sources at high interest rates to dig tubewells, but If rain is captured with people’s participation, drought can many such borings fail, leading to indebtedness and even be banished from India in 10 years. Unfortunately, the slogan suicides. Thus agriculture has become riskier and more capof “more crop per drop” has so far remained an empty rhetoital-intensive in the last three decades. ric, an ideology without a methodology. There is a political reluctance to control water-hungry crops in low-rainfall regions, such as sugarcane in Maharash(The author is a former secretary of the Planning Commission)