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