HARVEST OF HOPE

The government is pulling out all the stops to ensure a bumper Rabi crop. At stake are the livelihoods of 200 million farmers and the urgent need to revive the economy

- Ajit Kumar Jha with Anilesh S. Mahajan

Baisakhi, that annual festival of hope and regeneration, was to have been extra special this April 13. It was a day before the prime minister was due to announce that he would lift the lockdown that had pulled the shutters down on an entire country and its economy. Winter rainfall and an extended cold spell had delayed the harvest of an expected bumper rabi crop; all that was needed for it to resume was the end of the 21-day lockdown. As it turned out, the lockdown was extended by another 19 days. As it pushed people and businesses deeper into despair, agriculture suddenly became the only hope for the country, to resuscitate its stalled economy and infuse demand in the system.

With encouraging minimum support prices (MSP) and a good monsoon, the area under rabi cultivation increased by 8.6 per cent this year, from 59 million hectares (mha) last year to 64 mha this year. Even though rabi acreage in the country is 22.4 per cent less than for kharif cultivation, they have an equivalent contribution in the total foodgrain production in the country. The area under wheat cultivation—primarily in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar—grew 11.2 per cent over the previous year, from 29.7 mha to 33 mha. Riding on the back of a winter rainfall and an extended cold spell, production of wheat, the chief rabi crop, was slated to hit 106 million tonnes this year. With the government announcing an MSP of Rs 1,925 per quintal, the value of the wheat crop alone this year was expected to touch Rs 2 lakh crore.