Weatherproof the farms
I am an entrepreneur and an avid reader of Down To Earth. I am very impressed with the “Sitting Ducks” article, published in the 1-15 February, 2022 edition of the magazine. I would like to extend my compliments to the team on the collection and collation of facts and figures. I would love to read many more articles like this from you in the future.
I do have some comments on the article. In the section on weather prediction systems, it mentions the first step is to modify cropping patterns based on more accurate agrometeorology predictions. I fundamentally disagree. In India, huge masses of adjacent farm plots are owned by different farmers. As a result, unless many land owners form a farming cooperative society, individual owners will have either 0 per cent or 100 per cent weather damage at the plot level. Adverse weather damages some plots but has no effect on others. Farmers in developed countries can tolerate the process because they have a large land-holding (made up of many plots), so even if 20-30 per cent of plots are damaged, there are still a lot of undamaged plots. So, the total losses can be averaged out. Agrometeorology cannot predict a weather event down to the plot level. Hence, from the perspective of an individual farmer in India, he really cannot depend on this method for compensation.
The numbers crunched in the insurance section is an eye opener. I hope legislators and regulators read the article. Before we can talk about insuring crops, we need to first protect them against inclement weather in some way. The answer lies in agrotech.Though currently expensive, it is still possible to deploy agrotech at the plot level.Till this is done, companies will not be interested in insuring crops because of the inevitable damages every year.This brings me to the third point of inflation. Every time there is a crop loss, an insurance cover can save the farmer, but not the farm produce. As a result, food supplies will dwindle, creating unpredictable inflation in food.
I am amazed there are no government policies on weatherproofing the farm sector. Of course, it is not a one-stop solution for everything wrong with the farm industry. But I think it is a crucial start that will at the very least reduce weather damage.