Impact of Drought in India

Records over the last century show that a severe drought occurs every eight to nine years. Between 1871 and 2002, India saw 22 significant droughts.

• Drought is one of the most frequently occurring natural disasters in India. As a result of increased frequency and expanded coverage in recent years, about 1/3 of the country is either suffering drought or a desert area. These regions are suffering from poor agricultural productivity and are also suffering from reduced economic growth. They have highly fluctuating agricultural production and incomes from year to year, as well as a relatively high prevalence of poverty.
• Due to their low and fluctuating incomes, high levels of debt and low levels of development, the poor in these regions face a range of risks. It is a serious challenge for policymakers to make sure that vulnerable people rise out of poverty and those drought-prone areas are integrated into mainstream development.
• These states, which are the worst hit, are home to almost 40 percent of the nation’s population, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, parts of the North-East, Rajasthan and Telangana. According to DEWS, the drought-stricken areas of the country are split into six categories: Exceptionally Dry, Extremely Dry, Severely Dry, Moderately Dry, Abnormally Dry, and No Drought.
• Impacts on agriculture: Drought has both direct and indirect effects on agricultural output. Agricultural productivity has declined by up to 40% in rainfed areas due to severe droughts. This is why farmers in rainfed areas have abandoned farming as their primary source of income. Neglecting dryland farming while forming policies is the biggest lack in policy design for countering droughts in India.
• Impacts of rainfed areas: Rainfed areas are extremely drought-prone. Drought occurs every three years on average in India’s rainfed regions. In recent years, job prospects have shifted from the farm to the non-farm sector in states like Rajasthan, which is predominantly a rainfed agricultural area. Droughts last 3 to 6 years and have an impact on water availability for people and cattle.
• Impacts on small and marginal farmers: Drought in rainfed areas has wreaked havoc on small and marginal farmers’ food and livelihood security. Farmers in areas of the country where monsoon rains are mostly used to irrigate their fields practise sustenance agriculture, which allows them to grow only one crop.

• • Their vulnerability is exacerbated by climatic changes, such as an unpredictable monsoon, which reduces their ability to take risks, restricts their investment in farming, and reduces their productivity. Small farmers account for about 78 percent of farmers who took their own lives in the last decade, and 76% of them relied on rainwater for their farming.

• Drought and food insecurity: Rainfall data over the last century shows that there has been a severe drought every 8 to 9 years. During the period 1871 to 2002, India experienced 22 major droughts. The drought of 1987 may have been the worst drought of the 20th century, with a 19 percent rainfall deficit affecting nearly 60 percent of cropland and affecting more than 85 million people.
• Drought and food security are intimately linked. 42 percent of the country’s cultivable lands are located in drought-prone districts, and rain-fed agriculture is particularly important to India’s economy. Rain-fed agriculture accounts for 68 percent of net sown areas in the country. The National Rainfed Areas Authority reports that rainfed crops comprise 48 percent of all food crop areas and 68 percent of all non-food crop areas.
• Poverty and drought: As has been the pattern in India, a severe drought strikes every 8 to 9 years. It negatively impacts the poorest the most. A poor farmer is likely to recover from drought in 3 to 4 years, depending on its intensity. Therefore, poverty is perpetuated by this factor. The drought of 2009 was the harshest one to strike in the last 35 years and affected around 400 million people.
• Drought and impact on women: Even today, particularly in rural India, women do not have a similar status as men in society. The implication is they are not given their fair share of opportunities in terms of living conditions, health care, nutritious food, etc. During drought conditions, women typically eat the least and suffer from malnutrition as they are the last to eat at home. The difficulty in earning the same wage is also increased by the drought situation since they must work longer to earn the same wage and have to travel farther to get water, fodder, and fuelwood.
• Drought and People living in desert areas: It affects people living in desert regions. People in desert areas depend more on animal husbandry than on agriculture. Several areas in the developing world suffer from severe shortages of fodder and water, and the degradation of vegetation makes it necessary for the people to rely on outside support.
• Drought affects employment: As agricultural production falls, rural populations whose livelihoods are dependent on agriculture lose employment opportunities. Individuals are also forced to migrate to other locations in search of work, a phenomenon known as ‘distress migration’.
• Drought affects children: In droughtaffected areas, insufficient nutrition causes malnutrition, making people more susceptible to infection and disease. Migratory populations are displaced from schools and health camps in which vaccinations are also provided. School dropouts often acquire a wage-earning position, resulting in increased child labour.
• Drought and Human development: Chhattisgarh and Odisha’s human development reports clearly demonstrate that districts experiencing drought have lower human development indices than the rest of their respective states. In Rajasthan, the same pattern holds true.