Explainer: What is the Farmers Distress Index?

In 2022, the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), an institution under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) started working on a kind of an early warning system called ‘farmers distress index’, a first of its kind for India. The work is in the final stages and the index will be handed over to the central government in the next two-three months. Here’s everything you need to know about the index:  

What is the farmers’ distress index?

The main aim behind creating such an index is to minimise the agrarian distress in the form of crop loss / failure and income shock. Farmers’ exposure to shocks have increased in the recent years, with an increase in extreme climate events as well as market and price fluctuations, many times driving them to death by suicides. 

The index will try to anticipate this distress and prevent its spread from a few farmers to the village or block level by pre-warning 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.

Methodology to track distress

The first step will be to scour through local newspapers, other news platforms and social media platforms for any report on incidence of farmers distress like localised cases of issues with debt repayment, death by suicide, pest attacks, drought, floods, migration, among others. “There are two possibilities in these cases. One these could be isolated cases, the second that these cases could have the potential to spread wider,” said A Amarender Reddy, principal scientist, CRIDA, who is in-charge of the index. 

Following this, contacts of marginal and small farmers or tenant farmers from the area will be collected to conduct telephonic interviews, which will have 21 standardised questions to gauge early signs of distress. The answers will be mapped against seven indicators: 1) exposure to droughts, floods, crop failure due to pest attacks, livestock deaths 2) debt 3) adaptive capacity of farmer and local government through different schemes 4) land holding and irrigation facilities 5) sensitivity, mitigation and adaptation strategies like growing of contingency crops if main crop fails 6) triggers for immediate distress like health-related expenditure 7) socio-psychological factors and impacts. 

All exposures to risk may not lead to distress, if farmers have sufficient adapting capacity and follow mitigation and adaptation strategies, added Reddy.

What will the index look like?

Based on these 21 questions, the degree of distress will be identified. The index will have values from 0-1. 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. 

If the index is severe, it will identify which component, among the seven, is more severe and contributes maximum to farmers’ distress. The index is currently being worked out in the form of a mobile or desktop application. 

After completion of the ongoing work, CRIDA will be handing over the index to the central government and it will be made available to different state governments, agriculture departments, rural development departments, agriculture universities, which have databases of local farmers as well as non-profits and civil society organisations. 

The next step

These different agencies can then carry out interventions to prevent income shocks to farmers depending on the severity of distress. The current solutions that are being thought upon 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, providing work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, enhanced rationing under Public Distribution System, among others may alleviate farmer’s distress. 

“For example, insurance claims under PMFBY are only given when a full survey is completed but, in this case, if the index suggests severe distress in the coming few weeks, then the government can provide interim relief under the scheme. This distress, for instance, is gender-based, then the government could look at ways for targeting improving women’s incomes through existing schemes,” explained Reddy.

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.