The Cove

Drought threatens rural life in India

Shortage of drinking water and loss of crops likely as monsoon fails to bring rains

Village women collecting water from a tube well at Bhamasar village, west of Ahmedabad, on Thursday. This monsoon season may be India's driest in seven years. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI: India's Farm Minister has warned that the severe shortage of monsoon rains in India has created a critical situation for rural livelihood, drinking water and crops.

The government expects early sowing of winter-sown crops over a larger area this year to offset some of the crop loss, but the farm situation remains disturbing,

'The situation is grim, not just for crop sowing and crop health, but also for sustaining animal health, providing drinking water, livelihood and food, particularly for the small and marginal farmers and landless labourers,' Mr Sharad Pawar told a conference of state farm ministers yesterday.

He said the authorities must help farmers plant alternative crops and provide food, fodder, drinking water and employment to people, particularly in the drought-hit districts.

'At this critical stage, we need to assess the current situation correctly,' he said.

Mr Pawar said efficient use of irrigation and judicious use of ground water and reservoirs were necessary.

Official data shows that India's main reservoirs rose barely one percentage point last week and stood at 38 per cent of total capacity, down from 58 per cent a year ago.

The rains improved in the past week, recording the highest rainfall in a month, but the rains were not evenly spread out.

Rainfall in cane-growing Uttar Pradesh state was 58 per cent to 89 per cent higher than normal in the week to Wednesday, while the soya bean-growing Madhya Pradesh state saw a deficit of 24 per cent to 31 per cent, the weather office said.

The monsoon season, which brings about three-quarters of the nation's annual rainfall, may be the driest in seven years, with more than a third of the nation's 626 districts declaring drought, the weather bureau said last week.

Inadequate rainfall has affected oilseeds and cane crops, potentially making the country an even bigger importer of sugar and edible oils next year.

Sugar prices have risen sharply in India as output has fallen and the cane crop has declined for two consecutive years, helping raw sugar futures surge to the highest in nearly three decades.

A sugar trade body said millers have contracted 4 million tonnes of raw sugar imports to meet demand, particularly in the festival season starting next month. High prices and fears of scarcity have led to hoarding in the world's largest consumer of sugar.

'Higher prices are not dampening demand. Media reports have created panic among consumers. People who used to buy 5kg of sugar every month, they are now buying 10kg,' said Bombay Sugar Merchants Association secretary Mukesh Kuvadia.

Mr Pawar said India's monsoon-sown rice production will drop by 10 million tonnes from last year's record as inadequate rains forced farmers to plant fewer hectares of the crop.

Rice was sown to 24.7 million hectares as of Aug 12, compared with 30.4 million hectares a year earlier, the farm ministry said last week.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the Cabinet had approved a higher price for rice purchased by government agencies to ensure adequate supplies and to help farmers lift their incomes after drought damaged other crops.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this week that the government is planning a crackdown on the hoarding of farm commodities and imposing limits on what stock traders can keep.

'Effective enforcement actions and other steps would be taken to ensure that the prices of commodities do not rise abnormally,' Mr Pawar said.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG

How did the unpredictable weather affect rural life in India?

UNMDG Report 2008

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The Mighty Mekong

An estimated 61 million people depend on the Mekong for their livelihood. The river is also a focus of trade and commerce. -- ST FILE PHOTOS

ABOUT 4,500km long, the river passes through more countries than any other river in Asia - China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.

An estimated 61 million people, especially fishermen and farmers, depend on the river for their livelihood.

Rich in biodiversity, it is also a focus of substantial trade and commerce. Recent estimates put the annual value of the river's wild capture fisheries at US$3 billion (S$4.3 billion).

Mainstream dams, which disrupt the free flow of the river, have contributed to the endangerment of the giant Mekong catfish, which can grow up to 3m in length. The catfish population is reckoned to have fallen by about 80 per cent in the past 20 years or so.

In June, a petition signed by about 12,000 citizens of Mekong countries urged Thailand and other Mekong countries to keep the river flowing freely and pursue electricity options that are less damaging than dams.

Dams disrupt lives of millions

By Nirmal Ghosh, Thailand Correspondent

Aug 8, 2009

WATER WOES ALONG MEKONG

BANGKOK: The mighty Mekong, meandering from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, is the lifeblood of tens of millions of people.

As many as 53 dams have been built, are under construction, or are being planned... Another 66 are at various stages of study.

But the huge volume of water coursing down half a continent through Indochina is a wounded creature.

As many as 53 dams have been built, are under construction or are being planned along the 4,500km river. Another 66 are at various stages of study.

Dams produce electricity and supply water for irrigation.

But they also disrupt the free flow of water, change the course and patterns of rivers and floods, and restrict the range and breeding of fish. They alter the subsistence livelihood base of millions of people, creating social and political tension.

One recent study estimates that the volume of migratory fish catch put at risk by dams on the Mekong is between 700,000 and 1.6 million tonnes a year. That is about five times the annual fish catch of a country such as Finland.

Civil society groups have for years been blowing the whistle on over-exploitation of the Mekong.

Now, environmental groups are waiting to see what the United States will bring to the table under a 'sister river' partnership between the Mekong River Commission and the Mississippi River Commission. The partnership came with the renewed engagement of the US in the lower Mekong region.

Last month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met for the first time ministers from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. At the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Asean Regional Forum in Phuket, she pledged a greater US role in issues such as the environment, health and education.

The ministers discussed collaboration on climate change, infectious diseases, the use of technology for education and development, and infrastructure at the talks.

Renewed American interest in the lower Mekong countries has largely been welcomed.

With Cambodia and, to some extent, Laos dependent on aid from donors, their governments are seen as welcoming enhanced US assistance, which also serves as a hedge against China.

This year, the US will spend more than US$7 million (S$10 million) on environmental programmes, US$138 million on health and US$16 million on education in the lower Mekong countries.

Washington's foot in the door, however, has drawn a less than enthusiastic response from Chinese analysts.

Professor Guo Xiangang, a scholar at the China Institute of International Studies, told the official Xinhua news agency on the day Mrs Clinton met the ministers that increased US presence in South-east Asia would complicate and bring uncertainties to regional issues.

For those who depend on the Mekong and are affected by water and rainfall disruption caused by global warming, the key issue is ecological security.

'We hope the increased presence of the US will be backed with a genuine commitment towards... sustainable development,' Mr Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, wrote to The Straits Times in an e-mail.

The 'sister river' partnership aims to share expertise and best practices in climate change adaptation, flood and drought management, hydropower and impact assessment, and water resource management.

But the Mississippi River is not exactly a shining example of good management.

A recent study by Louisiana State University concluded that marshland loss in the Mississippi Delta was being exacerbated beyond repair by dams.

'By learning more about what has happened along the Mississippi, the lower Mekong region can avoid making the same mistakes,' wrote Mr Ath.

1. Give evidence of the international organisation giving help to the LDCs.

2. Describe what form of help is being given.

Farmers' fears grow over poor rainfall

Aug 8, 2009

WATER WOES IN INDIA

The rains have been delayed in Indian states like northern Uttar Pradesh, which grows rice. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI: Most years, Ms Urvasi Kumari, a landowner in the Himalayan valley of Dehradun, would finish sowing her rice fields by mid-July.

This year, the sowing of fine basmati and other grains was delayed by two weeks because rain was scanty.

'Now, my fear is that low water supply will affect the yield. Besides, even if the rains pick up, we may have to harvest early because the cold season will start by the end of October,' she told The Straits Times.

Across India, farmers are hoarding diesel for irrigation pump-sets. Jewellery merchants who bought gold at high prices are now worried about losses in anticipation that weddings may be less ostentatious this year.

Unease over poor rainfall is turning into a mild panic in India as the life-giving monsoons play truant, raising the prospects of a drought just as the economy is emerging from the impact of the global slump and its own cyclical downturn.

The Indian government has ordered the civil service head of every state to turn up for a meeting in the national capital today. The day-long meeting will discuss the rain situation, the rising prices of vegetables and essential commodities, as well as an action plan to tackle the looming drought.

'The overall price situation, including that for pulses and sugar, is very serious,' Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told Parliament this week. 'If the rains in August and September turn out to be normal, then the price situation may improve.'

Those prospects look less likely by the day.

India's resurgent stock markets swooned on Thursday as the Meteorological Department published data showing that rains were two-thirds below normal over the seven days to Aug 5. This followed the driest June in more than 80 years, although the monsoon recovered somewhat in the following month.

'Rainfall was excess or normal in 11, and deficient or scanty in 25 out of 36 meteorological sub-divisions,' the Met office said. Overall monsoon deficiency, it added, was 25 per cent.

The annual south-west monsoon, the main source of moisture for the country, typically crosses the southern Indian coastline around June 1. It then works its way northwards up the peninsula before spreading eastwards. It retreats by the end of September.

The monsoons are critical to the Indian economy because only about 42 per cent of the area with major crops has the benefit of irrigation.

Although farm output now accounts for just 18 per cent of the national economic pie - half of what it was 30 years ago - agriculture and allied activity account for about two-thirds of total employment.

For that reason, a failed monsoon can translate into instant misery for millions of Indians and revive the spectre of food shortages.

With the rising Indian economy's thirst for foreign-made goods and the increasing number of Indians travelling the world, retail and tourist businesses from Singapore to South Africa could feel the impact of inadequate rains in India.

'If rainfall fails to improve more significantly, we fear a supply shock and a drop in agricultural output,' UBS economist Philip Wyatt said in a note to clients this week. 'Even a re-run of the 2002-2003 drought is now something we must consider.'

Mr Wyatt's current projection is that the Indian economy will expand 7 per cent in the year to March 2010. That forecast, he suggested, may be at risk if the monsoon stays weak.

A poor monsoon is also bad news for incumbent governments, both at the state and federal levels. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government benefited from normal rains throughout his first term, no doubt helping him retain power in the national elections held this year.

velloor@sph.com.sg

More land for growing food

More farms like the Yili Vegetation and trading Pte Ltd in Chu Kang can be expected to grow under the new proposal to create a local strategic food stockpile to safeguard against turbulent world food prices. -- TNP FILE PHOTO

More farm area, funds to be set aside to guard against global shortages

MORE land will be set aside for growing food while companies will be encouraged to work with farms overseas to ensure that Singapore has a ready and stable supply of produce.

With the turbulence in food prices in recent years exposing the island state's vulnerability, these moves should mitigate supply shortages and sharp price increases in the long term.

'Local farming can serve as a strategic stockpile, like Newater,' said National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in a speech at the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's food safety awards last night.

More space for farms will be obtained by expanding existing farms or setting aside unused land parcels.

It has been projected that over the next five years, the local supply of eggs should rise from 23 per cent to 30 per cent, fish from 4 per cent to 15 per cent and leafy vegetables from 7 per cent to 10 per cent.

A fund, the amount of which is not yet known, will be available for farmers to tap for upgrading and expansion. It can also be used by companies, such as those involved in import and distribution, to explore if food zones identified overseas are suitable for investment of capital.

Singapore now imports more than 90 per cent of its food, and the zones will be identified for six key imports - chicken, pork, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables and rice.

Companies will be encouraged to work with growers to farm specifically for Singapore, in addition to their local communities. 'We want to encourage our companies to increase their participation in the entire value chain from food production to distribution, to better secure supplies,' said Mr Mah.

Importers now cast a wide net, working with suppliers from over 30 countries. But these growers also supply to the rest of the world, so when there is a shortage, such as that just last year, a bidding war ensues. Singapore hopes to bypass such a scrap with its own assured supply.

'As Singapore imports most of its food, we are vulnerable to sharp changes in food supply and prices,' added Mr Mah. 'More needs to be done as we prepare ourselves to face the longer-term challenges affecting global food supply and demand.'

The situation is still volatile, he said, citing factors such as: the world population is still increasing and supply will be affected by rapid urbanisation on top of years of underinvestment in agricultural development.

It is hoped that these new measures will prevent a repeat of the price inflation for food items that hit Singapore around this time last year. The situation sent the authorities scrambling to secure new lines of supply. An inter-agency committee was set up to study and review food supply policies. The new recommendations have sprung from that.

Manufacturers have welcomed the proposals. Mr Thomas Pek, managing director of home-grown soya sauce manufacturer Tai Hua, which imports up to 2,000 tonnes of soybeans a year, said his product went up in price last year following a shortage of the main ingredient.

'There was a shortage of soybeans the whole of last year and everyone rushed to secure supplies from Canada, which is the main supplier of soybeans here,' said Mr Pek. 'If we have a stable supply just for Singapore, prices will stay low and I don't have to worry.'

Some importers have already expressed interest in working with the Government to create overseas food zones.

Mr Lim Hock Chee, Sheng Siong's managing director, said his company - which imports rice and seafood - is 'seriously looking into it' and is assessing its capability to implement such a concept.

'We believe such a concept may add to the stability and consistency of food supply,' he said.

limjess@sph.com.sg