More than three dozen cases of farmers’ suicides have been reported from several parts of India in last few weeks. Over 100 lakh hectares of area under rabi crop, 5 lakh farmers, 50 districts, and 14 states in India have been affected by untimely rain and hailstorm since February. The lifeline of Indian farmers – rain- did not take long before becoming the fatal reason for their lives.
State government heard the sad tales of farmers, Prime Minster Modi asked his ministries to assess the loss and Sonia Gandhi met rain-hit farmers in Madhya Pradesh. Looking at the state of farmers, Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government released a relief fund of Rs 500 crore for compensating rain-hit farmers. After the resentment of the agitated farmers and their families, PM Modi announced a 50% increase in compensation to farmers for damage to their crop because of untimely rainfall and other such causes. Also, the eligibility criterion for this was lowered from loss of 50% of the potential crop to 33 per cent.
However, is this really a step taken to address the stress of farmers or a mere political move to reject Sonia Gandhi’s demand of government procuring wheat even if it had more than 14% moisture?
Or, will this compensation be enough to provide the much needed relief to the farmers who not only have lost their hopes of a bumper crop but yield, houses, and dreams of their families as well?
While unseasonal rain will continue to damage crops and affect farmers’ lives as fresh western disturbance is approaching the Jammu and Kashmir region, prices of fruits and vegetables will also soar due to damaged crop. Is the government going to increase the amount of compensation or not, as the damage to crop increases, is a thing of future. But, unfortunately, till then farmer’s prosperity may remain jeopardized if the announced relief fund continues to be ineffective and misdirected like they have been in the past.
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