In India, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy. Contribution of agriculture to the economy of India can be estimated from the fact that 70% of India population is dependent on cultivation and agriculture contributes to 18% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India. Out of the total sown area, 60% is dependent on the rainfall, thus prone to floods and droughts. Thus flood and droughts occurring repetitively after some years have an adverse affect on our country economy.
In India major rainfall is received from southwest monsoon in the summer season. The vagaries of this monsoon are the main cause of floods/drought in our country. Floods are associated with excessive rainfall while the draughts are the result of deficient rainfall. However, other factor also plays a role in establishing the condition for these calamities including hydrology, deforestation, soil nature, erosion etc. At present our country is encountering the drought condition due to the deficient rainfall. While last year many regions of the country faced the situation of flood.
Since the majority of population (approximately 70%) is dependent on cultivation droughts and floods have significant economic, environmental and social consequences. Due to these natural calamities the product of farm gets damaged. The farmers who have taken huge loans to fund their operations from the private moneylender become unable to pay their debts. The quality of land gets deteriorated transforming into wasteland. Along with the current season productivity reduction next seasons crop also get reduced. The conditions of the marginal farmers become more vulnerable as they left with no or reduced produce of current crops and reduced land capacity for future. Last year due to the flood in Bihar 3 million people migrated from that area to the urban area in the search of work.
Impact of drought and flood is not only limited to the farmers but felt over the entire country. Food security that is already a concern, due to prevailing poverty and huge population, in the country turns severe. Due to reduced productivity food prices rises resulting inflation. This inflation is also the result of corrupt and malpractices of middlemen. Reduced purchasing capacity of common man bring decline in demands of other products and because of demand and supply rule the industries get affected. In this view economy of the country becomes somewhat stagnant.
Electricity, which is still not available to 400 million people, is very important requirement for the growth of economy of country. During draught due to the water deficiency hydroelectric power generation having 25% share in total power generation also gets affected. With the reduced power production almost all activities related to cultivation, industries, household etc. get adversely affected. Thus the output get reduced which is reflected in the GDP of country.
Drought and floods adverse affect on our economy get exaggerated due existing poverty in India (still approx. 6.8 crores families are below poverty line as planning commission). The conditions of poor farmers get more deteriorated and it becomes difficult for them to earn the basic needs. The government is running many programs like Bharat Nirman, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and Rastiriya Krishi Vikas Yoazana.etc. for poverty alleviation and enlistment of rural life.
The population in India is growing at faster rate. As an estimate the population of India will be 1.43 billion by 2031-32. To feed this burgeoning population the challenge on the yield of farm is increasing day by day. When such a calamity occurs it pushes a large population towards hunger including the cultivator. To meet this deficiency grains has to import from other countries. This results in reduction of the foreign currency that has a direct impact on economic state of country. Recently in the wake of Deficient rainfall in this year the finance minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee announced for the import of food for 700 million population of India.
The present drought situation the country is undergoing is very serious. More than 246 districts in the country have been affected by the malady caused by deficient rainfall. The severe drought like conditions is the result of climatic imbalances caused by the failure of the monsoon.
Due the sufficient grain stock, better transportation and communication facilities and advancement of technology situation of famine will not be encountered which is the result of floods and drought in the past. But still the impact these calamities on the overall economy can be felt. Though the government is taking several measures yet all those fall short to mitigate the affect of these situations.
Measures for flood mitigation were taken from 1950 onwards. As against the total of 40 million hectares prone to floods, area of about 18.22 million hectares has been protected by construction of embankments. A number of dams and barrages have been constructed. The State Governments have been assisted to take up mitigation programs like construction of raised platforms.
Floods continue to be a menace however mainly because of the huge quantum of silt being carried by the rivers emanating from the Himalayas. As per an estimate, every year about 2/3rd of the irrigation projects pond, tanks etc become ineffective due to siltation. Thus, the maintenance of these irrigation projects is very important that is not being carried out efficiently. In UP there are 100,000 personnel to carry out the task of maintenance but their output is nil. In between 1992 to 2004 around 200 minor and major irrigation projects were made but their capacity has left only about 3.4 hectare.
To fight with the condition of draught various projects are running Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP), and National Watershed Development Project for Rain fed Areas (NWDPRA), Integrated Water Development Project (IWDP). Water of the major rivers has to be diverted to area depleted of the rainfall. However the output of these programs is not satisfactorily. To gain the output of these programs these should be run more effectively and efficiently.
Much is being done but lot has to be done to conquer the adverse affect of Drought and floods. Along with the planned construction of new means the maintenance of existing one is also very important otherwise affect of these calamities will always remain on the economy of our country.
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