Drizzle when it needs to pour

It8217;s a case of too little and too late. That8217;s how Minister for Agriculture Ajit Singh looks at the spell of showers in the first week of August which has opened a small window of hope for many states.

8216;8216;This rain is too little and too late to make any difference. A lot of damage has already been done,8217;8217; he says. So, it8217;s still 8216;8216;a worse drought than 19878217;8217;.

After all, a complete absence of rain in July this year had made the monsoon deficient by 30 per cent, a figure that is way above 24 per cent of 1987.

But the farmers are making the most of the current wet spell. There are reports from Chhattisgarh that they are sowing paddy, and in eastern Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, it8217;s a fresh round of oilseeds and pulses. In some pockets of Madhya Pradesh, soyabean is being resown.

The overall picture is like this: By the end of July, 10 meteorological sub divisions had normal to excess rain, 21 had below normal and five scanty. After the current spell of rain, 16 sub-divisions have normal to excess rain, 16 are deficient and four are scanty.

The regions where the farmers have got another chance are Himachal Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan, western Madhya Pradesh, central Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha and entire Andhra Pradesh. The areas which are still under the dreaded 8216;8216;scanty8217;8217; category are western Rajasthan, Saurashtra and Kutch, western Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. 8216;8216;These are the areas which have been affected the worst and that means this spell has not made that much of a difference,8217;8217; said Singh.

The good news is that the met department says this spell is going to last for another 48 hours at least. All the factors are in place: the low-pressure area is over Orissa, extending to Bay of Bengal and the monsoon trough which had remained stranded at the foothills all over July is now firmly at its normal position over Central India.

8216;8216;We are making efforts to maximise the impact of this spell of rain by providing alternate seeds wherever required. For example, in many of the areas now it is possible to re-sow some crops,8217;8217; says special secretary Hemender Kumar.

The Government is going ahead with its mitigation plans: 8216;8216;Contrary to the earlier perception, the drought is not restricted to 12 states; it has affected most of the country,8217;8217; said Singh today, addressing a conference of state cooperative ministers. According to him, the rain in June proved to be counter-productive as it lured farmers into sowing the crop that was eventually damaged.

NABARD has advised state cooperative banks and regional rural banks to provide additional crop loans at an enhanced scale of finance to offset loss on expenditure already incurred and enable farmers to go for fresh sowing operations. It has asked the banks to grant loans for purchase of fodder, deepening of wells and installation of tubewells. The minister said NABARD would provide its share of 60 per cent towards the agricultural credit stabilisation fund of the state cooperative banks and also consider providing 5 per cent of the share of state governments.

GIC has been instructed to extend the date of acceptance of insurance proposals by 15 days from non-loanee farmers who have gone for late sowing due to delayed rainfall so that they are able to avail the benefits of crop insurance.

The RBI has at a meeting of the drought task force agreed to issue instructions to commercial banks for taking up credit relief measures similar to 1998 when despite a normal monsoon a number of states were reeling under drought due to uneven distribution of rain.

Under the RBI guidelines, short-term loans can be converted to term loans for three to five years and recovery of the converted loans can be deferred. The banks will also be asked to provide fresh loans based on crop loss and not to charge penal interest on individual loans up to Rs 25,000.