5
The subject of Agriculture Insurance has been treated in a separate
chapter (Chapter 11) only to buttress the considered theme of this study that
the repeated adoption of quick-fix solutions for farmers’ distress conditions
– loan wavers, doubling of credit rather hurriedly, and interest subvention
– have been harmful for both the banking institutions as well as the long-
term interest of the farm community itself. With the emergence of Remote
Sensing technology reaching an advanced stage for forecasting crop and
weather, appropriate insurance schemes already in vogue can be firmed up
now. Apart from insurance, there are the strong possibilities of introducing
a few risk preventing measures such as, improving ground water supplies,
better drought management schemes with Remote Sensing, strengthening
rural infrastructures, and diversification of occupations for poor farmers and
reducing their income fluctuations.
An out-of-the box solution for ground water augmentation we have
introduced in Chapter 11 is the use of strong and long water pipes to pump
and pull water from big rivers, similar to the carriage of crude oil, gas and
other petroleum products, and deposit them in deserts and dry areas. This is
as yet a sketchy idea but it can be firmed up once it is accepted in principle for
implementation.
Finally, Chapter 12,
Conclusion and Policy Implications
, seeks to bring
together the sum and substance of what is being conveyed in different chapters
of the study, but at the same time, it tries to take the study to a higher plateau
by constructing a set of policy measures which come out of the results so that
the issues of inadequacy of farm credit could find some solution in a healthy,
steady and enduring way.
