Mission Kakatiya, a timely measure

After loan waivers and launch of Mission Kakatiya, the government must follow them up with implementation of MS Swaminathan Committee recommendations to pave way for Bangaru Telangana

Telangana state is experiencing an erratic and uneven distribution of rainfall in various mandals, thus making agriculture in Telangana a proverbial gamble in monsoon. The state witnessed a 14 per cent deficit in rainfall during the South-West Monsoon, from July 6 to September 28. Overall, the average rainfall received in Telangana state from June to September is 607.7 mm as against the normal rainfall of 704.7 mm, showing a deviation of 14 per cent.

During the south-west monsoon period, out of 10 districts in Telangana, 20 per cent deficit rainfall is recorded in Nizamabad, Medak, Rangareddy, Mahabubnagar districts, while normal rainfall was registered in the rest. The state is staring at an extreme shortfall in rice production. It produces 33 lakh tonnes of rice during the kharif season, but the output expected this time is not to be more than 3 lakh tonnes.

To ease the burden of farmers, who are reeling under mounting debts due to vagaries of nature, the government fixed the annual credit plan for 2015-16 with an outlay of Rs 72,119 crore. Agricultural loans would be Rs 30,995 crore of the total outlay. Priority sector advances will have a lion’s share of Rs 47,360 crore i.e., 66 per cent.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee constituted to look into the problems facing agrarian community in the state has decided to waive crop loans to the extent of Rs 17,050 crore, as per the State-level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) of Telangana. Of the said amount, it is estimated that Rs 1,000 crore will be covered under the re-schedule programme in three districts, namely Adilabad, Medak and Range Reddy.

An amount of Rs 1,700 crore is covered under the agricultural gold loans extended for crop production purpose in the loan waiver scheme. Since the gold loans availed were said to be utilised for other than crop production purposes in many instances, a re-verification exercise is underway by the banks.

Since the deadline for insurance of the crops under the crop insurance scheme was 30th September 2014, in order to enable all the eligible farmers to insure their crops, it has been decided to request the Government of India to extend the cut-off date for insurance of crops under Kharif 2014 season up to 15th October 2014.

As the Kharif season is coming to an end very shortly, the Sub-Committee has decided to recommend an immediate release of the first installment of loan waiver amount. The Committee also recommended considering the cases of multiple loans obtained by a farmers' family for the same in the same bank or different banks, in the same agricultural season or different seasons, irrespective of scale of finance subject to an upper ceiling of Rs 1,00,000.

Meanwhile, so far the government has released an amount of Rs 4,039 crore towards waiver of agriculture loans as second installment and Rs 3,798 crore has been credited into the bank accounts, benefiting 33.66 lakh farmers. Besides, the government has taken up restoration of minor irrigation tanks, the lifeline of Telangana.

Highest priority is given to renovation of chain tanks under the flagship programme ‘Mission Kakatiya.’ Rainwater harvesting is also taken up to ensure that water yields of micro and minor irrigation structures would be kept at easily exportable levels. De-silting and revival of feeder channels are also grounded as part of Mission Kakatiya to enable assured irrigation of over 4 lakh acres ayacut, mostly in Khammam, Warangal and Adilabad districts.

The mission seeks to revive the ayacut of over five lakh acres paddy cultivated under tanks this kharif season, out of a total of about 15.15 lakh acres extent covered with the food crop – which is less than 60 per cent of the normal cultivation for the season. Out of the 9,306 irrigation tanks planned to be taken up under phase-I this year, initial delays saw the Irrigation Department take up works only on 7,350 tanks, of which over 4,500 have been readied for storage of designed quantity of water.

As of now, Mission Kakatiya is yielding results; so far 1,159 tanks have received water ranging from 75 per cent to 100 per cent of their capacity with several of them getting recording overflowing surplus weirs more than twice this season. In the coming five years, if all the tanks are restored as targeted, agriculture sector will flourish in the state and glitter like a gold, ushering in ‘Bangaru Telangana.’

Meanwhile, taking into hardships of farmers, driving them to extreme act of suicide, the government should implement the M S Swaminathan Committee report on offsetting the agrarian distress. (The writer is a deputy statistical officer, Telangana government secretariat.)

By G Rajendra Kumar