Farmers’ Distress Index

July 10, 2023

GS Paper III Indian Economy

Context:

In 2022, the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), initiated the development of an early warning system known as the “Farmer’s Distress Index.”

About Farmers’ Distress Index:

Aim: To minimise the agrarian distress in the form of crop loss / failure and income shock.
The Index will have values from 0-1 for distress.
A value between 0-0.5 will indicate ‘low distress’, 0.5-0.7 will indicate ‘moderate’ distress and above 0.7 will indicate ‘severe’ distress.

How will the Farmers’ Distress Index help farmers?

The index will try to anticipate this distress and prevent its spread from a few farmers to the village or block level.
It will give pre-warning to different stakeholders, including central, state, local and also non-government agencies about the future occurrence of farmers distress in a particular block / district so that they can take timely preventive measures.

What are the suggestions provided to mitigate farmers distress?

The current solutions that are being thought upon to alleviate farmers distress are direct money transfer, mid-term release of claims under government’s crop insurance scheme (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, PMFBY) in case of crop failures.

News Source: Down to Earth