India Lost Crops on 18 Million Hectares during 2017-2019: Govt

February 12, 2021

The government has shared data on Lok Sabha on February 11, 2021 that India has suffered a huge crop loss on 18.176 million hectares of land.

Highlights

The crop loss on the 18.176 million hectares land amounts to roughly 8.5 per cent of the total gross cropped area.
The crop loss occurred due to floods in the year 2017 to 2019.
Out of the losses, around 10.68 million hectares of land was affected in 2019 alone.
In 2018, 2.515 million hectares of land were affected while in the year 2017, 4.973 million hectares of cropped area were lost.
The government further highlighted that; the intensity of extreme floods has increased in India. The flood has also impacted the newer areas that were not flood-prone.
As per the data, flood-prone states of Bihar, Assam and Uttar Pradesh observed the extreme floods.
Extreme floods were also witnessed in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The floods were caused due to excess or large excess rainfall in the states.
Madhya Pradesh was the hardest-hit in all the states. The states had zero crop loss in 2017 and 2018 but, in 2019 it suffered the highest loss of 6.047 million hectares of land. The state had made the second highest claims in 2019 after Maharashtra under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana for crop insurance by the farmers.
The states of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Rajasthan and West Bengal also witnessed severe crop loss.

Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP) scheme

The minister further highlighted that the Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP) scheme was working in the entire country for flood management. Under this scheme, the government has released the central assistance of Rs 6,409.96 crore till March, 2020. This scheme was launched during Eleventh five year Plan period to provide central assistance to the state governments in order to take up the works related to river management, flood control, drainage development, anti-erosion, anti-sea erosion works and restoration of the damaged flood management works. The programme continued till Twelfth five year Plan.

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