Drought is the result of a prolonged period of rainfall deficit relative to normal conditions. It results from a lack of precipitation, leading to shrinking lakes and reservoirs, reduced stream flows, and declining groundwater levels, and – worse – low soil moisture failing to support crops and natural vegetation, which translates to crop failure.
This failure leads to agrarian distress, expressed through severe impacts including unemployment, labour loss, and loss of wages for agrarian communities; food insecurity and malnutrition due to food shortage forcing prices upwards, threatening basic nutrition and health; water scarcity and poverty forcing agrarian families to abandon their fields and migrate to urban areas in search of work; and – the most tragic – mental health stress due to weight of debt, ruined harvests, and lifestyle disruption, which leads to severe stress and adverse mental health outcomes in rural populations – the main villain pushing farmers to die by suicide.
All – or at least most – of these have played out in Karnataka, the second driest state in the country which is suffering from the worst drought in decades caused by a 32% record deficit in the southwest monsoon rainfall with 226 of a total 240 taluks declared drought-hit, and crop losses estimated to be Rs 60,000 crore to Rs 70,000 crore.
In the 21st century alone, Karnataka has declared drought in 18 of the 26 years, and records indicate that at least 2,809 farmers died by suicide in just the last three years. Independent assessments have linked rainfall deficits with farm distress deaths.
The state government announced a financial relief package of Rs 2,500 for about 50 lakh affected farmers in the drought-affected taluks, costing Rs 1,250 crore – which the farmers feel is inadequate.
It also implemented a 12-month moratorium on loan repayments and repayment tenures have been extended from 36 to 60 months. Besides, strict warnings have been issued against harassment of distressed agrarian borrowers by microfinance institutions, especially considering that reduced agro productivity leads to income loss, pushing vulnerable farmers into taking high-interest loans for sheer survival.
But where are the proactive efforts? Despite 79 years of independence, we have been unable to achieve drought-resilience and agrarian fortification. Despite no dearth of agricultural technologies and measures, we have failed agrarian families, causing them to remain vulnerable to nature’s vagaries.
Various primary agricultural technologies and measures are said to be active across India to withstand drought. These include smart water management and precision irrigation, under which the Internet of Things (IoT) – using embedded sensors, software, and connectivity features for monitoring data over the internet without human intervention – and data-driven micro-irrigation are linked to facilitate calculation of real-time soil water depletion and water delivery to plant roots to maximise moisture while minimizing waste.
Laser land levelling improves water application efficiency by up to 50% while reducing irrigation water demand by up to 40%. Advanced rainwater harvesting and water retention techniques including poly-lined farm ponds to prevent water seepage loss while preserving water for prolonged dry spells, and on-site moisture conservation through technologies like trench-cum-bunding, contour cultivation, and ridge-and-furrow farming trap rainwater directly in the field. There is climate-resilient and drought-tolerant crop selection, and artificial intelligence and remote sensing for strategic advisories.
In a written reply in Lok Sabha in March last year, the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Bhagirath Choudhary, detailed that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed and promoted climate-resilient agriculture to help vulnerable areas of India cope with extreme weather conditions, particularly droughts.
This is being done through the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, with three components: strategic research, technology demonstration and capacity building. It also focuses on crop diversification of paddy and wheat with groundnut and mustard in low rainfall areas; maize with medium-duration black gram; high-value vegetables for flood-prone areas; mulberry-sericulture for risk minimization in drought-prone regions; and short-duration foxtail millet varieties as an alternative crop to pigeon pea, cotton, sunflower and sorghum.
Choudhary pointed out that all 731 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in India conducted activities to meet climate resilience challenges by demonstrating location-specific resilient technologies on farmers’ fields. The KVKs are also involved in issuing agro-advisories to farmers to tackle aberrant weather situations.
Further, Choudhary’s reply stated that ICAR institutes and agricultural universities provide technological backstopping to the Subject Matter Specialists of KVKs to upgrade their knowledge on climate-resilient agriculture for further dissemination to the farmers.
Despite the claims that all these are actively pursued, Karnataka continuing to suffer from severe drought so frequently points to their impact not being fully absorbed in the state.
Agriculture is a state subject. The state government enacts laws and policies regarding agricultural matters, land improvement, agricultural education, research, and plant protection.
The Union government influences the sector through national policies, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) (the pan-India electronic trading portal for agricultural commodities), fixing minimum support price, fertilizer subsidies, and trade or commerce regulations with national economic impacts. This ideally requires a firm handshake between the two to ensure drought-resilience to halt the tragedies unfolding in its wake year after year. But politics needs to step aside for that.
