Unseasonal rains in India

The unseasonal rains have lashed many parts of northern and north-western part of India recently.Instead of bringing joy to the farmers, the untimely rains have created hardships for the Indian farmers.The untimely rain is a product of the climate change and the disproportional increase of green-house gases in the atmosphere. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) in its latest report had exactly warned of such untimely downpour across the world.

The heavy downpour in recent days has affected the rabi crops,particularly wheat,in India.Other affected crops include potato, mustard and pulses.Although the inflationary pressures in food grains are likely to be weathered due to sufficient buffer-stocks with the Government, price-rise in vegetable items may raise its ugly head in the days to come.Moreover,the cost of harvesting will increase due to the the integrated harvestor having to lower its blade nearer to the ground surface while harvesting the crops.

Robust measures are needed to protect the farmers against the impact of untimely rains.First,farmers need to diversify their agriculture.The Indian farmers would do well to adopt livestock farming in addition to crop cultivation.It is because livestocks like poultry or dairy farming are resistant to vagaries in weather.Second, agricultural insurance is an area which has ample scope for improvement.As of now,the insurance penetration in agriculture is abysmally low.The awareness level among farmers regarding the merits of insurance also needs to be created.Credible insurance packages for farmers would save the farmers against overwhelming losses.Third,the government,agricultural universities and research centres should work in tandem to educate the farmers regarding proper crop practices and alternate cropping methods.They should also develop a credible mechanism to measure the losses incurred by the farmers in their fields and adequately compensate them.