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The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, with the Minister of State, Mr Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, on his way to attend a meeting with Agriculture and Relief Ministers of States facing dry spell, in the Capital on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI, July 24

IT is official now. The Agriculture Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, has declared that the country is on the threshold of the "worst and most widespread drought'' in over a decade.

Speaking to presspersons after a four-hour long meeting convened with Agriculture and Relief Ministers of 12 States here today, Mr Singh noted that as many as 355 out of 512 districts (nearly 70 per cent) in the country for which data is available had received deficient, scanty or no rainfall at all during the current monsoon season from June 1 to July 17.

"If it rains in some of the affected areas in the next 5-10 days, there could be some recovery. But it will not be enough to improve the farmers' plight'', the Agriculture Minister said.

According to him, going by the feedback received from today's meeting - attended by Ministers and officials from Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra - "the damage seems to be much bigger than what we have so far assumed''.

Moreover, unlike the dry spell of 2000 - which was largely localised to MP, Gujarat and Rajasthan - "this year's drought is much more widespread'', he added.

The India Meteorological Department's latest data shows that 92 per cent of districts in UP have received deficient, scanty or no rainfall at all, with the corresponding figures being 93 per cent in Punjab, 100 per cent each in Haryana and Himachal, 97 per cent in Rajasthan, 91 per cent in MP, 85 per cent in Chattisgarh, 74 per cent in AP, 69 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 68 per cent in Orissa and 52 per cent in Karnataka.

Mr Singh said that today's meeting was only a preliminary exercise to gauge the magnitude of the damage and take some immediate corrective measures.

"We have decided to ask Nabard to advice co-operative banks to defer recovery of interest on crop loans extended for this season.

Ideally, the interest should be waived totally, but this is a detail that has to be worked out by the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'', he said.

It has also been decided to make assistance available under the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) to all farmers in drought-hit districts and not just to small and marginal farmers.

Also, farmers would be allowed to pay insurance premia under National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) even after the deadline of July 31 on a case-to-case basis.

The States had also demanded additional free foodgrain allocation of 4.1 million tonnes towards food for work schemes for providing employment, particularly to landless labourers rendered idle by the current situation.

"We have foodgrain stocks of over 60 million tonnes, which is more than sufficient to meet this demand'', he added.

The Minister also felt that the current drought will not affect consumers as much as farmers.

"There is no dearth of foodgrains or other essential items for the consumer, which can even be imported.

"It is the farmer who is going to be really hit because he faces loss of income'', he added.

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