Assessment of agricultural loss due to 2018 flood to farm households in the flood pains of Chalakudy river

Abstract

Disaster-induced economic damage has been increasing in the past few decades and is likely to continue growing because of urban development, population growth and ecosystem alteration. The state Kerala, with its location along the sea coast with a steep gradient along the slopes of the Western Ghats is highly vulnerable to natural disasters. Floods are the most common natural hazard in the State. Kerala encountered the most exceedingly awful floods in its history since 1924, between June 1st and August 19th of 2018. The state‟s economy and a large number of agriculture dependent rural households, most of which are involved in subsistence agriculture, are found to have borne the brunt of the unprecedented deluge and its aftermath. It is in this context that the present study entitled „Assessment of agricultural loss due to 2018 Flood to farm households in the flood plains of Chalakudy river‟ was undertaken. Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLA) methodology given by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2012 was used for the damage and loss assessment with appropriate modifications. The term damage in the study means destruction (total or partial) of physical assets, while the term loss indicates the change in economic flows arising from the disaster. The study was conducted selecting 10 panchayats across three blocks, viz. Chalakudy and Mala blocks in Thrissur district and Parakkadavu block in Ernakulam district. Both primary as well as the secondary data were used for the study, however, the study was based mostly on primary data. The assessment of disaster effects on the farm households along the flood plains of the river with respect to damage and loss suffered to crops, assets and livestock showed that on an average a farm household in the flood plain has suffered a damage of ₹12,837 to agricultural assets, while the damage suffered was ₹75,538 for seasonal crops and ₹9,391 for perennial crops. With respect to livestock and poultry, on an average a farm household has suffered a damage of ₹12,216. Crop loss to the individual farm households as the crops were either damaged/lost or the production declined was also estimated. The results revealed that on an average a farm household xxx in the flood plain has suffered a loss of ₹1,59,469 from seasonal crops and ₹1,52,358 from totally destroyed perennial crops and ₹32,854 from partially destroyed perennial crops. The result suggested that it is the loss from seasonal crops which was accounted as investment loss contributed the most to the total loss suffered by a farm household. The assessment of disaster effects in the flood plains of the river with respect to damage and loss suffered to crops, assets and livestock showed that the flood plain has suffered a damage of ₹7.32 crores to agricultural assets, while the damage suffered was ₹43.10 crores for seasonal crops and ₹5.36 crores for perennial crops. The flood plain has lost about ₹6.97 crores due to the death of livestock and poultry. An estimation of the agricultural loss was also carried out in the flood plains as almost all the households reported losses from seasonal crops and perennial crops. The study showed that the flood plain has suffered a loss of ₹90.85 crores from seasonal crops and ₹86.72 crores from totally destroyed perennial crops and ₹18.55 crores from partially destroyed perennial crops. The study concluded that the flood plain has lost about ₹258.87 crores to the 2018 Kerala floods. An attempt was made to analyse the resilience level of the affected farmers. In the study wherein resilience was taken as the ability of the farmer to continue next season cropping, it was found that the sample respondents on an average showed a resilience of 0.48 in a scale of zero to one. Risk orientation, level of indebtedness, insurance, relief fund, savings, other losses and damage level were found to be the important perceived factors that help in building resilience with importance of these factors in the order mentioned above. The results of logistic regression to understand the influence of socio-economic variables on resilience suggested that while education and subsidiary occupation positively influenced the resilience, family size and crop diversification index was found to have a negative influence. Major hardships faced by the respondents were identified as flooded house, crop loss, disruption in power supply, inadequate transportation facilities, field inundation, disrupted communication services, loss of labour days and non-availability of drinking water. Keeping in view the inconsistencies with regard to the xxxi xxxi estimated flood impact to agriculture and the corresponding reported values by the Government offices, adopting standardized methodological approach based on internationally approved frame work for assessing the impact of disasters on agriculture was suggested as the major policy intervention. Understanding the importance of having a subsidiary income in building the farmer resilience, encouraging farmers to take up different crop related and other enterprises was the other major policy intervention suggested.