RECENT RAINS TO HELP
RABI CROP : AJIT SINGH
BRAINSTORMING
SESSION ON DROUGHT MANAGEMENT
The Union Minister of Agriculture, Shri Ajit Singh
said today that the recent rains would help Rabi Crop and the
overall production of food grains might not be effected to a great
extent. Shri Singh was speaking at the "Brainstorming
Session on Management of Drought, 2002" organized here
by the National Centre for Disaster Management, Indian Institute
of Public Administration. Describing the drought situation in
the country to be the worst in the current century, Shri Singh
said that this drought is different from other droughts of the
past. He said that following a good rainfall in the month of June,
farmers had sown their land. However, July was the driest month
of this century and this resulted in heavy losses to the farmers.
Shri Ajit Singh said that in view of the comfortable
forex and food grain reserve, there won’t be any problem to the
consumer but the farmer would be hit because of erosion in his
income. He said that rural areas have been affected much more
this time than earlier droughts. The Minister said that the drought
has affected a number of industries such as fertilizer, pesticide,
pharmaceutical, herbal and cosmetic product industry, besides
the consumable good industries as majority of these consumers
include the farmers. Shri Ajit Singh said that the current drought
may not mean much in terms of statistics but in terms of human
misery, it has cost a lot. Stating that inspite of drought, milk
supply to cities has increased implying that the farmer is selling
more milk and consuming less to compensate loss of income. As
a result it is feared that the health of children in these areas
is likely to be adversely affected.
Stating that creation of irrigation facilities
and conservation of water are important and more and more dams
should be built, the Minister said that water should be treated
as a "National Resource". Referring to the K.L. Rao
Committee report on connecting rivers of the country as well as
having a National Grid; the Minister said that Centre should have
a say in the distribution of this precious resource and there
should be National Water Policy. He also said that this issue
would be raised by him in the National Development Council meeting
to be held in October.
Participants in the one-day brainstorming session
include policy planners, experts from the field of agriculture,
disaster management, drinking water, meteorologists, State Government
officials and NGOs.
