Even as the first month of rainy season in India ended with a countrywide rainfall deficit of 11 per cent (after arrival of the southwest monsoon at the southern Kerala coast on June 8), rains have started picking fairly well in the last few days reassuring prospect of higher agricultural yield by enabling farmers to plant summer-sown crops such as rice, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, etc., on time. Though there was delay of a few days in the arrival of the rain, the Indian Meteorological department (IMD) said that there was no much concern regarding sowing of kharif (summer) crops. According to the IMD, despite the deficit in June, rains have been in the normal to excess range in around two-thirds of the country’s 36 meteorological subdivisions, and that the monsoon has now already advanced further into remaining parts of northern regions of the country.
The fast pace of sowing has raised hopes that the total sown area could touch the level reached in 2013, when a good monsoon had led to 6 per cent more rainfall than normal. The sowing trend so far points to a better kharif crop this year, although output would also depend on how rains perform in the rest of the season till September. Kharif sowing will continue for another 40 days or so due to the continuing favorable weather conditions, even though initially the delay in arrival of the monsoon had resulted in raising fears in terms of escalation of food inflation and other economic fallouts in the country.
Indeed, even in the 21st century, monsoon continues to be crucial for agriculture in India as only 46 per cent of its cultivable area (land on which cultivation is done at least once a year) is under irrigation, while the balance 54 per cent is unirrigated and hence dependent on water that rains down from the clouds, mostly in the four monsoon months – June to September. Consequently, for almost 40 per cent of the population, agriculture has not changed, as it is still dependent on the ‘rain God’ – the southwest monsoon. So, poor or erratic rain leads to heavy rural distress and a consequent hike in government subsidies to various sectors that impact directly on the country’s economic growth.
In an agricultural economy blessed with abundant rainfall and vast areas of fertile soil, the vagaries of a capricious monsoon should have been harnessed by now. Sadly, 54 per cent of cultivable land in India is still rain-fed after 68 years of Independence. Back in 1997, a government committee calculated that the ultimate irrigational potential (UIP) for the country was about 140 million hectares (Mha) – the possible extent of irrigation facilities that can be created. However, in 2012-13, the net irrigated area was just 65 Mha, as per data available with the Union Ministry for Agriculture (MoA). Clearly, the single most important input needed – water – has not been provided for a large number of farmers, leaving them vulnerable to the erratic monsoon.
Economists point out that providing irrigation requires a huge investment on the part of the government. Even the irrigated regions depend heavily on the summer rain to recharge groundwater levels for rabi or winter sowing season. For the last several decades, the farmers have had no other option but to turn to pumping groundwater out through tubewells. In 1990-91, the share of tubewells in all irrigation was 30% but this jumped to 45% in 2011-12. In 1960-61, tubewells contributed just 1% to irrigation. Canal irrigation declined from 36% in 1990-91 to 25% in 2011-12.
This does not mean that the tubewell dependent farmer is untouched by a failure of monsoon. Here is how it blows back on him too; his expenses for buying water from tubewell owners shoot up manifold in the absence of rain. Most small and marginal farmers do not own pumpsets and tubewells, they buy water from larger farmers.
According to experts, there is a larger hit the economy is taking because of lack of irrigation. Productivity is much lower in rain-fed cultivation. It ranges from one to two tonnes per hectare for foodgrains, compared to up to four tons for irrigation. That is why about 44% of foodgrain production comes from 54% unirrigated land, while the irrigated areas produce 56% output.
In a written reply, in May this year, the Union Ministry for Agriculture informed the Parliament that as per the report on ‘Land Use Statistics for 2012-13’ (latest available) total land under cultivation / cultivable land in the country has decreased from 182.01 million hectares in 2010-11 to 181.96 million hectares in 2011-12 and further to 181.95 million hectares in 2012-13. The Ministry, however, said that the situation can be brought under control by increasing crop density from 138% to 200% with focus on improving irrigation facilities and deploying technology in agriculture sector for increasing crop output.
Last year (2015) when there was deficient monsoon rainfall, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a meeting to review the ‘Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana’ had said the ‘challenge’ should be converted into an ‘opportunity’ for looking at other avenues of irrigation and had strongly pitched for boosting the creation of farm ponds as a short-term effort. He had also pressed for quick adoption of a multi-pronged strategy to augment the country’s irrigation network and had sought a relook at the administrative mechanism, financial arrangements and technology applications in the irrigation sector, to result in a shorter, more comprehensive decision-making process, which could deliver quick results for the farmers. Unfortunately, the PM’s talk of converting challenge into opportunity seems to have remained a mere rhetoric as there has been no positive result of the outpourings, till date.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
