An action plan for hailstorms

Between February 11 and February 13, over 262,877 hectares (ha) area in Amravati, Nagpur, Marathwada and Nashik divisions of Maharashtra was affected due to thunderstorms and hailstorms. As per the state government’s assessment, crops of wheat, gram, sorghum (jowar), onion, grapes, oranges, and cotton have been affected in 19 districts. Hailstorms have also killed three people and over 500 birds. To provide relief to the affected farmers, the state government has announced a relief package of Rs 200 crore.

This isn’t the first time farmers in Maharashtra have faced hailstorms and lost their rabi (winter) crops. Since 2014, the state is facing hailstorms every year in the months of February and March. Between 2014 and 2017, over 2.7 million ha area in the state has been affected by hailstorms. But, unlike the previous years, when the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the state government failed to properly forecast the hailstorms and alert the people, this year, with the help of an independent meteorological advisor, the state government managed to issue a severe thunderstorm, including hailstorm, advisory on February 7, four days before the primary event.

The hailstorm advisory, in the form of a detailed press note and an infographic in local Marathi language, listed out dos and don’ts to protect the crops and safeguard human lives. With an advance warning, several farmers managed to harvest their rabi crops. But, the impact of hailstorms — with hail size bigger than lemons — was so widespread that crops over two lakh ha area in the state has been partially or fully destroyed.

Dealing with hailstorm, a natural disaster, requires both preparedness and swift action. First and foremost is timely and accurate forecast, which can not only help reduce crop losses, but also save lives. Forecast has to be clear about the days of the hailstorm and area to be affected. During the recent hailstorms, the state government’s advisory of February 7 and IMD’s warning of February 8 did not match. Former specified the districts to be affected by the hailstorms, whereas latter warned that hailstorms were “likely” at “isolated places” in Vidarbha, Marathwada and Madhya Maharashtra. The February 9 Agromet Advisory Service Bulletin for the state of Maharashtra, which is based on the IMD forecast, did not mention Marathwada as one of the regions to be affected by the hailstorm on February 11. But, several districts of Marathwada bore the brunt of hailstorms and thunderstorms on February 11. Clearly, we need timely and precise weather warnings without confusing the farmers with a different set of advisories.  

In spite of an advance warning, several farmers lost both standing crops and harvested crops. One of the reasons for this loss is lack of adequate storage facilities. Farmers covered the heaps of harvested crops with plastic sheets, which weren’t enough to protect the crops. Since hailstorms have become an annual feature, creating decentralised crop storage facilities in Marathwada and Vidarbha could help save the harvested crops.  

Crop compensation criteria is another issue that needs to be addressed. Whereas the farmers claim on an average they invest Rs 50,000 per ha in their farmland, the crop compensation ranges between Rs 6,800 per ha for non-irrigated land and Rs 13,500 per ha for irrigated land. Clearly, the crop losses suffered by the farmers are way beyond the crop loss calculations of the government.

Crop insurance against hailstorms can be another instrument to protect the farmers. But, independent assessments of crop insurance schemes point out several flaws. Last year, an independent assessment of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found claim settlement was poor even in states that had paid their share of the premium on time. At the district level, the implementation of PMFBY was “seriously compromised”, warned CSE. Another recent evaluation by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations has found that even two years after the PMFBY’s launch, use of technology like mobile phones or remote sensing to estimate crop losses was limited. The Centre, however, blames the states for glitches in PMFBY and is soon expected to issue revised set of guidelines for the crop insurance scheme.

Three years ago, the Institute of Abiotic Stress Management, an institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, published a comprehensive report, Hailstorms: Causes, Damage and Post-hail Management in Agriculture. Among other things, the report lists hail control mechanisms, such as cloud seeding, anti-hail cannon, anti-hail nets, etc; and provides detailed crop-wise information on post hailstorm management.

The government of India’s Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) has also prepared a 16-page advisory for the care of hailstorm-affected horticulture crops. But, these advisories and official documents with details of pre- and post-hail management practices have failed to reach the farmers and make any discernible impact on protecting crops from hailstorms.   

Hailstorms in February and March are no more ‘unseasonal’. And, Maharashtra is India’s most hailstorm-prone state, as reported in an IMD analysis of hailstorms across the country between 1981 and 2015. The state needs to put in place a comprehensive disaster management plan to deal with hailstorms, and such a plan should become a part of the state’s action plan on climate change, which, at present, makes a cursory reference to hailstorms.

Nidhi Jamwal is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.