In Jharkhand, a rare drought leaves farmers with no paddy to sell

Abhishek Anand, scientist and officer in-charge, IMD Ranchi, said, “Last year’s drought was not a one-off case. It was the impact of climate change. Weather has been gradually turning extreme. That is why we are seeing irregular rainfall now. Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh saw one of the worst monsoons from June to August last year — with a deficit of nearly 50 per cent for these months.”

Despite slashing the original target of 80 lakh quintals or 8 lakh metric tons (LMT) to just 3.63 LMT for the 2022-23 KMS, the state managed to procure a measly 1.55 LMT (42.87 per cent) of the revised target as of March 28. Only 29,424 farmers (nearly 13 per cent) of the 2.29 lakh who had registered turned up at procurement centres across Jharkhand. While procurement in Bokaro district barely touched 20 per cent of this year’s target, it was much, much higher than Dumka and Sahibganj, which saw zero procurement.

According to the Jharkhand State Food and Civil Supplies Corporation (JSFC), the state enterprise that manages public distribution system (PDS) operations, the target for the 2021-22 KMS was 8 LMT and paddy procurement stood at 7.52 LMT (94.12 per cent).

JSFC managing director Yatindra Prasad told The Indian Express, “There is definitely agricultural distress in most districts of Jharkhand. Agriculture in the state is predominantly limited to mono-cropping, that is paddy, due to the state being only rain-fed. We decide procurement targets based on data on per hectare yield. There was a severe drought last year, hence we revised our procurement target.”

Prasad said Rs 1,531 crore was paid to 1.39 lakh farmers last year who sold paddy at a minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 2,040-Rs 2,070 per quintal based on the grade of the produce. As of March 28, Rs 143 crore was paid to the 29,424 farmers who turned up to sell their produce this year.

Shikha Hansda (45), a farmer from Borio block of Sahibganj district, owns 3 bighas and has a family of eight to feed. “The paddy harvest is usually enough to meet my entire family’s rice needs for a year. However, two-thirds of the seedlings shrivelled and died last year due to the drought. I was able to harvest some paddy on one bigha, since that part of the land is close to a water source, but things have been tough as we have no other fixed source of income,” she said over telephone.

To a query on employment opportunities under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Shikha said there are few takers for the job scheme due to delays in payments.

Talking about this year’s woeful procurement figures, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Rameshwar Oraon said, “Farmers will first keep the paddy they need to sustain their family for an entire year and only then will they sell the excess at procurement centres. Since there was a severe drought last year, the Hemant Soren government gave one-time compensation of Rs 3,500 to each farmer family under its Drought Relief Scheme (announced in 2022).”

However, many farmers claimed they had not received any compensation. Stating that she had not yet received the drought relief money, Shikha said she had pinned all her hopes on this year’s monsoon. Unlike Shikha, Shriram applied for compensation but alleged that he had failed to receive any relief despite making several attempts.

Ajit Manjhi (33), who owns a nearly 5-bigha field in Gomia block of Bokaro, claimed that he too had failed to receive compensation under the drought relief scheme. “There was some rain while one patch of seedlings was ready to be transplanted. I managed to grow some paddy but it is already over. I am now entirely dependent on the PDS to meet my family’s food needs,” he said.

In the 2021-22 KMS, Dumka saw the procurement of 1.49 LMT of paddy against the target of 1.40 LMT and farmers received Rs 30 crore for their produce. In the 2022-23 KMS, despite the revised procurement target of 50,000 quintals — three times less than the original target — the district procured zero quintals since none of the registered 4,046 farmers turned up at the procurement centres.

The 2021-22 KMS was a good season for Sahebganj, which saw the procurement of 78,000 quintals of paddy, nearly 20 per cent more than the target of 65,000 quintals. Despite the revised target of 25,000 quintals for the 2022-23 KMS, none of the 1,972 registered farmers sold their paddy.

Besides Dumka and Sahibganj, procurement figures from Godda, Deoghar and Jamtara are equally dismal this year. Only 1,859.53 quintals (2 per cent) of the target of 1 lakh quintals was met in Godda district, where just 79 of 14,713 registered farmers turned up at procurement centres. In Deoghar district, of the target of 1.85 lakh quintals, only 6,777.98 quintals (3.6 per cent) was procured from 148 of the 8,466 registered farmers. In Jamtara district, only 355 of the 4,529 registered farmers sold 9,512.54 quintals of paddy (9 per cent) of the procurement target of 1 lakh quintals.

Deputy Commissioner Dumka R S Shukla said farmers had failed to turn up although districts had kept procurement centres open. “This was mainly because sowing took place on less than 6 per cent of the total area last year (due to drought and mono-cropping),” he said.

Talking about the rains in Jharkhand over the last two years, Anand added, “In August and September, considerable low pressures and depressions formed in the north Bay of Bengal. These systems crossed from south of Jharkhand, leading to rains in the south and central districts. However, this left north Jharkhand with bereft of rains. In 2021, these systems crossed from the centre of Jharkhand, leading to uniform rainfall throughout the state.”

Meanwhile, Prasad blamed the state’s procurement figures this year on the shift from Decentralised Procurement (DCP) to Centralised Procurement System or Non-Decentralised Procurement (non-DCP). Under the DCP format, the state undertakes direct purchase of food grains, and stores and distributes them as part of the National Food Security Act and the Centre pays the state for the entire expenditure incurred on procurement operations. Under the non-DCP format, procurement for the central pool is undertaken by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) or the State, and the cost of food grains procured by state agencies are reimbursed by the corporation.

Prasad said Jharkhand followed the DCP format for the KMS in 2016-17 (only for one district), 2017-18 (only for five districts) and 2018-19 (only for six districts) but shifted to the non-DCP format for the 2019-20 KMS.

Prasad said, “We had written to the state government asking it to push the Centre to allow us to remain non-DCP for one more year. Though the Centre did not budge, the process took time. During the two months that the process took, the paddy remained at our procurement centres and we could not procure extra produce. Had things been resolved on time, we could have procured 10-15 per cent more paddy. That said, looking at the slow rate of procurement, the state government should have revised the revised target too.”