To plug help package deal loopholes, Nabard plans farmer misery index

With small and marginal farmers getting a uncooked deal in farm mortgage waivers, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) is planning to formulate a farmer misery index (FDI) to trace, establish and help the true needy and distressed farmers.

Depending on the extent of misery, the federal government and the monetary establishments can determine on an applicable package deal of help as an alternative of the present follow of doling out misery package deal to all of the farmers throughout the board. “We are thinking of such an index. It will help really needy and distressed farmers. It has not yet been worked out,” Nabard Chairman G R Chintala mentioned.

This index received’t be uniform throughout the nation because it adjustments from place to tempo relying on the stress ranges. It may also assist your complete monetary sector, authorities departments and insurance coverage firms. While the misery of a farmer is normally measured by the extent of his crop harm, this leaves method too many distressed farmers in different areas out of the beneficiary ambit.

According to a research collectively performed by Nabard and Bharat Krishak Samaj (BKS), a farmers producers’ group, in Punjab, greater than 60 per cent of the ‘very high’ and ‘high’ misery small and marginal farmers (SMFs) didn’t obtain farm mortgage waiver (FLW) advantages. The exclusion price was additionally 60 per cent for the medium misery class SMFs.

In Maharashtra, SMFs that have been comparatively higher off as they have been categorised as ‘low’ misery acquired the utmost FLW advantages. Close to 42 per cent of the SMF whose misery class was ‘very high’ didn’t obtain FLW advantages.

In UP, 47 per cent of the ‘very high distress’ class, and 45 per cent of the ‘high distress’ class SMF didn’t obtain FLW advantages. In the three states collectively, greater than 40 per cent of the ‘very high distress’ farmers didn’t obtain any FLW advantages.

In Maharashtra and UP, the sugarcane farmers who had taken loans, largely had irrigated land and have been assured of a good value within the type of FRP (honest and remunerative value) and SAP (state suggested value). They all acquired the good thing about farm mortgage waiver. The extra distressed small and marginal farmers having un-irrigated lands and rising decrease worth crops (notably ones not procured at MSP) could not have taken crop loans. So, they haven’t benefited from FLW schemes, the research mentioned. There have been complaints about rich farmers getting the advantages of farm mortgage waivers introduced by numerous state governments within the final couple of years.

Nabard research says this farmer misery index can combine the obtainable high-frequency knowledge on key agricultural variables like deviation of monsoon rains, extreme rainfall, drought and dry spells, variations in temperature and soil moisture, yield of main crops within the district, proportion of space below irrigation, depth of underground water, uncommon frost, advertising alternatives obtainable to the farmer that will embrace the proportion of wheat, paddy, chana, tur, groundnut, soybean and so forth. produced and procured at MSP.

“Use of weather data derived from remote sensing technology, automatic weather stations, mobile telephony and artificial intelligence can help in identifying the distressed villages,” it mentioned.

“Use of data of claims received for crop insurance is also likely to help in identification of distressed regions. These can be tracked on a real-time basis and be used to monitor and predict the level of farmer distress,” the research mentioned. Technology breakthroughs like use of house expertise, AI and block chain in agriculture might be harnessed to carry dynamism and credibility to the system.

“This index can be used by the policy makers and the government to plan and design a timely and targeted method of supporting distressed farmers,” mentioned Nabard Deputy MD Shaji KN.

Further, relying on the type and severity of misery, the help might be given as a mix of unconditional grants, mortgage restructuring and/or an entire debt waiver. The help to particular person farmers might be primarily based on a mix of district index and particular person farmers’ misery captured through irrigation standing of his land, revenue from crops grown by him, common productiveness of the district and the common value in APMC markets of this district as in comparison with the common value of the state.