Crop damage estimates in UP revised to 9.51 mn ha

Total area impacted across India at 18.9 mn ha

Over the past month, estimates of damage to the standing crop in Uttar Pradesh (UP), one of India’s major grain-producing states, have swung from a high of 9.72 million hectares to a low of 2.46 million hectares, before coming back to 9.51 million hectares on April 24.

According to the latest estimates by the Centre, the standing crop on 18.98 million hectares has been affected in the unseasonal rain and hail that hit several parts of the country since late February, a huge jump from the 9.38 million it had estimated on April 16.

If this estimate is final, then as much as 30 per cent standing rabi crop has been impacted by the recent rains and hailstorm across the country. This year, rabi crops — excluding fruits and vegetables — have been sown in around 60 million hectares of land.

Interestingly, the latest estimate by the department of agriculture after factoring in inputs from different states, is closer to its preliminary estimate released on March 24, wherein it had said the standing crop on 18.1 million hectares had been damaged.

Much of the impact has been on wheat, the main foodgrain grown during the rabi season. According to the preliminary estimate, the standing crop on 9.72 million hectares in UP was damaged.

“The major change is due to a change in figures furnished by Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar and also major change in Uttarakhand, Telangana, Gujarat, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh,” an official statement said.

“Figures from Uttar Pradesh are changing very wildly and in the last one month, these moved down from 9.72 million hectares to 2.46 million hectares and back again to 9.51 million hectares,” said an official.

He said the government must assess the actual extent of damage caused to farmers in the recent unseasonal rains and hailstorm and get their insurance claims verified and settled by the insurance companies at the earliest.

The Centre has enhanced the amount of assistance granted to farmers by 50 per cent and lowered the eligibility for assistance from 50 per cent area damaged to 33 per cent. It has also directed banks to defer the recovery of short-term crop loans by a year.

“In the current situation, when large-scale crops have been damaged in the rains and hailstorm, directives have been issued to regional rural banks and others to convert the short-term crop loans into medium-term ones (those with a period of 18 months or more) and defer their recovery,” Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, chairman of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, told Business Standard recently.

The term-loans will also be restructured apart from making the farmers eligible for fresh loans,” Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, chairman of NABARD, had told Business Standard recently.