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Rainfall in June-September rainy season will be 102% of the 50-year average with a model error of plus or minus 4%

The southwest monsoon arrived as forecast on the Kerala coast on Monday and India’s crucial four-month rainy season is likely to see normal rainfall, the government’s weather office said, raising hopes of a bumper crop this year, a rare bright spot in a virus-ravaged economy.

Rainfall during the June-September rainy season will be 102% of the 50-year average with a model error of plus or minus 4%, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday. That is more than its own April forecast of 100% of the 50-year average, indicating that the conditions have turned favourable.

Ample rainfall during the monsoon season is crucial for Indian farmers as it waters more than half of the country’s farmlands that lack assured irrigation. More than 60% of the country’s 1.3 billion people are dependent on agriculture. A good harvest will also help contain rising food prices.

While rains normally bring cheer in rural India, a deluge can wreak havoc and further complicate the containment of the coronavirus pandemic in vulnerable states such as Kerala and Maharashtra.

According to weather scientists, ocean conditions are turning favourable for a good monsoon this year. The sea-surface temperatures, which tend to impact monsoon, are below normal, indicating La Nina—a phenomenon in which waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal, and favour a good monsoon over India. Another ocean phenomenon called Indian Ocean Dipole is also neutral and likely to remain so.

According to weather scientists, ocean conditions are turning favourable for a good monsoon this year. The sea-surface temperatures, which tend to impact monsoon, are below normal, indicating La Nina—a phenomenon in which waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean are cooler than normal, and favour a good monsoon over India. Another ocean phenomenon called Indian Ocean Dipole is also neutral and likely to remain so.

“We have declared monsoon onset in Kerala based on the favourable conditions today,” M. Mohapatra, director general of IMD, told reporters.

“Widespread rainfall is predicted in Kerala in the next three days. More than 80% stations of IMD have recorded more than 2.5mm rainfall,” he added.

“Uniformly, we expect a good spatial distribution across the country for this monsoon season. All India, it will be 102%; 107% over north-west India; 103% for central India; 102% for southern peninsula; 96% in the North-East,” said Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, secretary, ministry of earth sciences. July rainfall, crucial for summer crops, is expected to be 103% of the 50-year average across the country, he added.

  • Crops over 4,000 hectares in Sriganga nagar and 100 hectares in Nagaur have been destroyed
  • Swarms of locust had recently entered some residential areas of Jaipur and settled on trees and walls

    JAIPUR : About 90,000 hectares in 20 districts of Rajasthan have been affected due to the locust attack, an official said Thursday.

    Swarms of locust have moved from Sri Ganganagar, Nagaur, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli and Swai Madhopur towards other areas in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after the authorities conducted operations to tackle them.

Farmers will be able to get compensation for the losses due to locust swarm attacks when the problem is declared a natural disaster, MP agriculture minister Kamal Patel said

BHOPAL : The state Agriculture Minister Kamal Patel on Thursday said that the government is planning to declare the locust swarm attacks as natural disaster, following a survey on the losses accrued to them.

“Farmers will be able to get compensation for the losses due to locust swarm attacks when the problem is declared a natural disaster,” Patel said.

The Minister further said that the government is not only planning to eliminate locusts but their eggs too for long-term relief from their attacks.

He added that the government is discussing measures to control locusts with scientists.

Centre unveils ₹1.5 tn package to free up a fragmented farm market from trade curbs, offers new framework to reduce price uncertainties for farmers

The government on Friday unveiled what it called an “empowering”  ₹1.5 trillion farm sector package to free up India’s fragmented agriculture market from trade curbs and stock limits while offering a new framework to reduce risks and price uncertainties for farmers.

The biggest element of the fiscal package announced on Friday is a ₹1 trillion fund for entrepreneurs to set up facilities for procuring, storing and marketing of agriculture produce in a move aimed at improving the value realised by farmers. This fund will finance setting up cold chains, post-harvest management infrastructure and storage centres.

“The underlying principle (of the package) is to empower the people, give them resources so that they can produce for themselves and have livelihoods for themselves rather than going for entitlements,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said as she announced 11 measures seeking to woo fresh investments into the agriculture value chain, including cold storages and other facilities and to unshackle the farm economy by giving farmers more freedom to access markets.

The plan includes amending the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), a more than six-decade-old law that empowers authorities to impose curbs on stocking of farm produce, to bring it in tune with the times and to help farmers get better value for their produce. Stock restrictions were needed in an era of food shortages.

“We have been waiting for these reforms for 30 years since 1991 (reforms). These measures will unleash unlimited investment and employment opportunities in agriculture production and post-harvest activities,” said Ramesh Chand, an expert in agriculture and member of federal policy think tank NITI Aayog.

The minister also announced a plan to bring in a central law to give farmers more choice in selling their produce rather than being at the mercy of licensed buyers and to remove barriers to inter-state trade.

“We also want to make sure there is a framework for e-trading of their produce. At present, you know, the farmer sells only to licence holders. This restriction has been one of the reasons for him not finding a fair price,” Sitharaman said. The reforms are aimed at resolving some of the thorny issues in the farm sector, which adds to the pain of farmers who also have to deal with the vagaries of nature and price uncertainty. The broad idea is help establish ‘one nation one market’.

Rural distress has often snowballed into political storms, threatening electoral fortunes of parties. The Narendra Modi administration rolled out an income support scheme for farmers at the end of its first term, shortly before it went into polls in 2019.

The ₹1.5 trillion package will go toward financing farm-related infrastructure such as cold storages and post-harvest management facilities, support for fishermen aimed at doubling fisheries exports as well as for dairy farmers and bee keepers.

“Now the ECA needs an amendment. That amendment is largely towards making sure that cereals, edible oils, oil seeds, pulses onions and potatoes will completely be deregulated. Therefore, unless there is an extraordinary situation, there is no requirement to invoke ECA. Stock limits will be imposed only in exceptional situations such as national calamity, famine or if there is a huge surge in prices,” Sitharaman said.

No stock limit shall apply to food processors or value chain participants subject to installed capacity. The minister said the move will ensure that export demand for India’s farm produce is not affected.

For micro food enterprises, the minister said a ₹10,000 crore support will be given. This will help these units modernize their business. Most of the products covered under the scheme will be related to health and wellness, nutritional and organic products.

“Wherever entitlements are due, yes, they will be given. But largely our focus is to make sure India stands up on its own, generate its own jobs. You will see a lot more of empowering people through creating skills and logistics,” Sitharaman said.

As announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, 25 million farmers who do not have a Kisan Credit Card will now be able to avail concessional credit

The government on Thursday decided to boost the flow of credit to the agriculture by attempting to bring more farmers under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme and through an additional outlay for farm loan refinance.

As announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, 25 million farmers who do not have a Kisan Credit Card will now be able to avail concessional credit. The government will conduct a “special drive” to bring these farmers under the ambit of KCC.

“Nearly ₹2 trillion of concessional credit will be extended to boost farming activities. The special drive will include 25 million farmers who do not, at the moment, have the KCC,” said Sitharaman, adding that fishermen and animal husbandry farmers will also be included in KCC.

Introduced in 1998, the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme provides term loan for agricultural needs of the farmers. The model of KCC scheme was prepared by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) that met the recommendations of the RV Gupta Committee. The KCC is available at all Indian banks. The government provides an interest subvention of 2% for loans up to ₹3 lakh to banks, provided they disburse short-term loans at 7%.

In the 2018-19 Union Budget, the government had said it would extend the facilities of Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to animal husbandry farmers and fisheries to help them meet their working capital requirements.

“In pursuance of the said budget announcement the matter has been examined, and in consultation with all stakeholders, it has been decided to extend the KCC facility for working capital requirement for activities related to animal husbandry and fisheries,” a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notification said on 4 February, 2019.

According to Nabard’s FY19 annual report, there are 70 million active Kisan Credit Cards in India, which according to Nabard “implies that nearly half of the farmers are still out of the ambit of institutional credit system”.

“In order to bring all farmers within the KCC fold, the government, in Interim Budget for 2019–20, has announced a comprehensive KCC drive with a simplified application form to widen the coverage of the scheme,” Nabard said it the annual report.

Meanwhile, Sitharaman also said on Thursday that Nabard will extend additional refinance support of ₹30,000 crore for crop loan requirement of rural co-operative Banks and regional rural banks (RRBs).

“Nabard does this already and ₹90,000 crore is the annual average they spend on this scheme, and we are now putting in an additional ₹30,000 crore. This will be immediately released so that the post-harvest rabi work which is going on,” said Sitharaman.

She said that 33 state cooperative banks, 351 district cooperative banks and 43 RRBs have come forward to avail of this on-tap lending and this will directly benefit small and marginal farmers.

“This will benefit 3 crore farmers,” said Sitharaman. She also said that around 3 crore farmers with agricultural loans of ₹4.22 trillion availed the benefit of the three-month moratorium on loan repayments announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 27 March. Banks have lent ₹11.57 trillion of loans for agriculture and allied activities as on 27 March, showed data from RBI. Outstanding credit to this sector grew 4.2% in FY20, as compared to 7.9% in FY19.

“Immediately, post-harvest if there are any requirements, this money will help the small and marginal farmers. Not only post-harvest rabi, but also for preparatory kharif, this will be of help. The regional rural banks and the rural cooperative banks will be the ones which will use this credit,” said Sitharaman.