Droughts: India
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Droughts in India
Drought-proofing in India: 1960s-90s
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
Drought not a big calamity in India anymore
The monsoon has failed badly this year as it did in 1965.But its little more than an inconvenience this year,whereas in 1965 it was a monstrous calamity.The drought-proofing of India is a success story,but one widely misunderstood. India in the 1960s was pathetically dependent on US food aid.Even in the bumper monsoon year of 1964-65,food aid totalled 7 million tonnes,over one-tenth of domestic production.Then India was hit by twin droughts in 1965 and 1966.Grain production crashed by one-fifth.Only unprecedented food aid saved India from mass starvation.Jawaharlal Nehru talked big about self-sufficiency.Yet he led India into deep dependence on foreign charity.The 1966 drought drove India into a ship-to-mouth existence.Hungry mouths could be filled only by food aid,which reached a record 10 million tonnes. Foreign experts opined that India could never feed itself.William and Paul Paddock wrote a best-seller titled Famine 1975,arguing that the world was running out of food and would suffer global famine by 1975.They said aid-givers couldnt possibly meet the food needs of high-population countries like India.So,the limited food surpluses of the West should be conserved for countries capable of being saved.Countries incapable of being saved,like India,should be left to starve,for the greater good of humanity.
Indians were angered and horrified by the book,yet it was widely applauded in the West.Environmentalist Paul Ehrlich,author of The Population Bomb,praised the Paddock brothers sky-high for having the guts to highlight a Malthusian challenge. The US was never happy with Indias non-alignment.President Johnson made Indian politicians and officials beg repeatedly for more food.This prevented mass starvation,but left Indians writhing with humiliation. Then came the green revolution.This,it is widely but inaccurately believed,raised food availability and ended import dependence.Now,the green revolution certainly raised yields,enabling production to increase,even though acreage reached a plateau.But it did not improve foodgrain availability per person.This reached a peak of 480 grams per day per person in 1964-65,a level that was not reached again for decades.Indeed,it was just 430 gm per day per person last year.Per capita consumption of superior foodsmeat,eggs,vegetables,edible oilsincreased significantly over the years.But poor people could not afford superior foods. How then did the spectre of starvation vanish Largely because of better distribution.Employment schemes in rain-deficit areas injected purchasing power where it was most needed.The slow but steady expansion of the road network helped grain to flow to scarcity areas.The public distribution system expanded steadily.Hunger remained,but did not escalate into starvation.By the 1990s,hunger diminished too. Second,the spread of irrigation stemmed crop losses.The share of the irrigated area expanded from roughly one-third to 55% of total acreage.Earlier,most irrigation was through canals,which themselves suffered when droughts dried up reservoirs.But after the 1960s,tubewell irrigation rose exponentially,and now accounts for four-fifths of all irrigation.Tubewells are not affected by drought. More important,tubewells facilitated rabi production in areas with little winter rain.Once,the rabi crop was just one-third the size of the kharif crop.
Today both are equal.This explains why in 2009,which witnessed one of the worst monsoon failures for a century,agricultural production actually rose 1%: good rabi production offset the slump in kharif production. However,arguably the biggest form of drought proofing lies outside agriculture.Rapid GDP growth has dramatically raised the share of industry and services.Agriculture accounted for 52% of GDP in 1950,and for 29.5% even in 1990.This is now down to just 14%.Even if one-twentieth of this is lost to drought,it will be less than 1% of GDP. Back in the 1960s,India couldnt afford to import food,and depended on charity.But today GDP is almost $2 trillion,exports of goods and services exceed $300 billion and forex reserves are $280 billion.Even if we had to import 10 million tonnes of wheat at todays high prices,the cost,$3 billion,would be easily affordable.In fact,no imports are needed: government food stocks exceed 80 million tonnes. This is the real reason that droughts have ceased to be calamities.Foodgrain availability remains as low as in the 1960s,despite the green revolution.But rapid GDP growth,by hugely boosting the share of services and industry in GDP,has made agriculture a relative pygmy,greatly reducing the economys monsoon dependence.There remains a catch: a drought may no longer mean mass starvation,but still means food inflation.
2016
Water trains
To Bundelkhand
The Times of India, May 06 2016
Water train carries politics to parched Bundelkhand Slamming the brakes on a water train sent by the Centre for the parched Bundelkhand, the UP government on Thursday said the crisis was “not as serious“ as in Maharashtra's Latur.BJP accused the Samajwadi Party government of “gross insensitivity“ and asked it to make use of the train to ferry water to the parched region.
The state government, however, requested the Centre to provide it 10,000 tankers for distributing water in the region. “UPCM @yadavakhilesh requests GOI for 10,000 road tankers to distribute water in Bundelkhand from available water resources around the region (sic),“ the CM's office tweeted.
Bundelkhand is facing a crippling shortage of water and with an eye on the 2017 assembly polls, political parties are trying to take credit for resolving the crisis.
SP, which is in office, has accused local BJP members of asking the Centre for a water train to snatch credit from the Akhilesh Yadav government, which has distributed relief packets in the region.
A train with 10 empty wag ons has reached Jhansi. “The wagons are ready to be filled with water from a reservoir for dispatch to the destination as and when needed,“ commercial officer, Jhansi railway division, Girish Kanchan said.
Reacting to UP government's refusal to accept the water train, railway minister Suresh Prabhu said the Centre doesn't want to do any politics on the issue and all possible help would be provided to the state government.
BJP accused the SP government of “gross insensitivity“ after the alleged starvation death of a Dalit in Bundelkhand. It asked the SP govern ment to focus on providing relief to drought-hit farmers instead of spending money on publicity . “The Centre has helped the drought-hit people by sending a water train and the state should capitalise on it rather than making it a political issue,“ BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said.
Impact of drought on economy
The Times of India, May 11, 2016
Drought in 10 states is estimated to impact the economy by at least Rs 6,50,000 crore as about 33 crore people across 256 districts are facing the grave situation, a study has revealed.
Due to two consecutive years of poor monsoon, 2014-15 and 2015-16, water shortage in reservoirs as well as lowering of ground water table has created a serious challenge for the drought-affected areas in 10 states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, the study by Assocham said.
"The rough estimate indicates that this drought will cost national economy at least Rs 6,50,000 crore or say $100 billion," it said. The impact of drought is likely to remain for at least six months more because one needs resources and time to revive the activities on ground even if monsoon is predicted to be normal this year, it said.
"Let us assume, the government will spend just Rs 3,000 per person to cover water, food, health for these people for one or two month. With the population of 33 crore at risk, the estimated cost to economy will be about Rs 1,00,000 crore per month," the study said.
The loss of subsidies on power, fertiliser and other inputs multiply the impact, it added. On economic impact of drought, the study said the financial resources get diverted from development to aid and the possible migration to other places puts pressure on urban infrastructure and supplies.
There is likely an impact on children and women health besides farm debt increase due to loss in livestock and farm economy in the drought-hit districts, it said. The drought would create inflationary pressures making the food management an imperative challenge for the government and the policy makers, he added.
