What's ailing rural India | Floods destroy water-intensive crops in Haryana, farmers complain of lack of drainage

The extent of floods can be gauged by the fact that Haryana has formally declared a flood for the first time in its history, and 1,350 villages across 12 districts - Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Palwal and Faridabad- have been declared as flood-hit.

While anticipatory measures are being taken to plug breaches of bundhs and reservoirs, Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana, Dushyant Chautala has said that the 1st phase of work is underway to recover the drinking water distributing system in Ambala.

Even as the state government is planning to work on making permanent culverts to ensure that water flow in future doesn't affect roads, it aims to monitor the situation in Sirsa in view of recent rains.

The state government's initial estimates peg damages from heavy rainfall in these districts at around Rs. 500 crores, and has promised relief measures and compensation.

But farmers say that the final extent of damage will be much higher. With a portion of the season's rice crop effectively washed away, India may be staring at a shortage of rice in a few months. Experts say the recent ban on the export of non-basmati rice to control retail prices may help, but may still not be enough.

The Bhartiya Kisan Union Dakonda has said that the rice crop has failed in over 60 percent of the paddy fields, and over half of the fields can't be resown. This could potentially mean a 30 percent drop in rice supplies this year, a percentage which may rise if rains continue or flood waters don't recede quickly. Experts say a lot more R&D has to be undertaken to prevent such crop failures in the future.

Agricultural Expert Siraj Hussain said that cropping pattern has to reflect the change in climatic conditions, though he added that the farmers could've done little when it rained too much in a short period of time.

While he sounded that no existing type of paddy would've been able to withstand the flow of water witnessed recently, he suggested that in the longer run agricultural universities along with the government can work to develop drought & flood-resistant varieties.

Even as flood waters recede, farmers are trying to do whatever they can to salvage the situation. While the damage to crops due to the floods is irreversible, farmers are looking for a permanent solution from the government to solve problems relating to irrigation and drainage.