Surinder Sud: The need for long-term action

It's time to implement measures that will soften the impact of droughts in future

India has learnt several useful lessons from the past experience on how to manage droughts. Most of the recent severe droughts, including the worst ones in 2002 and 2009, were dealt with fairly well. Passing a judgement on the handling of the current drought will, however, be premature at this stage, especially in view of the indications of a delayed response to it in some states. But what is amply clear is that despite an increase in the frequency of droughts due to climate change, the need for drought mitigation and adaptation has not been fully appreciated. Greater emphasis on these aspects could have helped limit the gravity of droughts, reduced loss of crop and livestock output and saved resources and efforts that usually go towards relief and rehabilitation of drought-affected population.

The current approach towards drought management is based broadly on the "drought code" - earlier called "famine code" - that was drafted originally by the British rulers and has since been modified from time to time to suit the changing circumstances. This code revolves essentially around launching ad hoc relief measures to provide drinking water, food, fodder and employment in drought-ravaged areas. These programmes are wound up once the drought is over and also forgotten till the tragedy strikes again. The present code, thus, is basically a recipe for meeting the problem on hand with the least regard to measures needed to soften the impact of droughts in the long run.

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For this, we need a "good weather code" envisaging actions that ought to be taken in years of normal rainfall to build up lasting resilience against droughts, particularly in perpetually drought-prone areas. Expansion of irrigation is generally viewed as the prime means to drought-proofing an area. But this approach, though not without its merits, is far from a complete solution to the problem of droughts. For, even after harnessing all available sources of water, a sizeable part of the chronically drought-prone areas would still remain out of the irrigation network.

The magnitude of the drought menace is indeed colossal. No part of the country is immune to droughts. The least vulnerable is Assam and its adjoining areas in the Northeast which experience drought, on an average, only once in four years. The most vulnerable, predictably, is west Rajasthan where drought occurs once in every two and a half years. The other regions fall in between this range. Considering the official reckoning, about 120 million hectares of the country's total geographical area of 328.73 million hectares, spanning 185 districts in 13 states, are endemically susceptible to droughts.

Capturing and preserving rainwater during non-drought years is the main mantra of the good weather code for drought mitigation. One way to do it is to build artificial water recharge structures to guide rainwater to the sub-surface aquifers. Simultaneously, measures are also needed to prevent wasteful run-off of water by creating vegetative barriers of grass and shrubs on vacant lands. This will help curb soil degradation through water erosion. Moreover, check dams need to be created on natural water courses to serve the twin objectives of storing water for immediate use and promoting its seepage to sub-surface layers.

Ideally, one-third of the rainwater received during the year should be stored in surface water bodies like ponds; the rest two-thirds should be allowed to percolate down to recharge wells and replenish groundwater to maintain overall water balance. Underground storage is, by far, the best method of water preservation, especially in hot and arid zones where evaporation from surface water bodies is high.

For adaptation, the need is to introduce a judicious mix of modern "conservation agriculture" techniques, such as zero tillage, vegetative mulching and raised bed crop planting, along with well-chosen cropping patterns based on traditional knowledge and wisdom. Conventional practices like mixed cultivation of more than one crop in the same field and integration of farming with livestock husbandry based on small animals (sheep and goats, as against cows and buffaloes) hold the key to adaptation to droughts.

surinder.sud@gmail.com