With the southwest monsoon playing truant, the government is working on a disaster management plan to help farmers tide over the possibility of crop failure and the consequent loss.
The Department of Agriculture is focussing its efforts on the paddy sector, likely to be the worst affected by a poor monsoon. “With the initial monsoon spell tapering off, transplanting paddy shoots from the nurseries has become difficult,” observes R. Ajithkumar, Director of Agriculture.
“Amid reports that the monsoon may pick up over the next two months, we have prepared a contingency plan to encourage farmers to shift to short-duration varieties of paddy. Sufficient seed stocks are available in Kerala for distribution to farmers.”
CalamitiesAnother part of the disaster management package involves a comprehensive crop insurance scheme for farmers, slated to come into effect by September.
As many as 25 crops including paddy, coconut, rubber, cashew, spices, banana, tea and coffee, and vegetables are covered under the scheme which provides relief assistance for crop loss due to natural calamities such as drought, flood, landslip, earthquake, coastal erosion, cyclone, storm, lightning, forest fire, and rampaging wild elephants.
The government has earmarked a budgetary support of Rs.500 lakh for the corpus fund. Mr. Ajithkumar said the department was trying to bring as many farmers as possible into the scheme in view of the weak monsoon and its impact on the availability of water for farming.
Installation of micro-irrigation systems to ensure maximum utilisation of available water forms is the third component of the package. “Farmers will be encouraged to switch over to drip irrigation systems,” Mr. Ajithkumar said.
The department is also working on a proposal to promote plasticulture in a big way to address the shortage of water in the event of an extended break in the monsoon. The technique involves the use of thin plastic films to avoid evaporation loss from the soil and prevent weed growth.
