A large number of farmers from Thiruvadanai and RS Mangalam blocks, considered the ‘rice bowl’ of the district, staged a protest at Thiruvadanai near here on Friday, demanding full compensation under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for the year 2017-18 and drought relief for 2018-19.

Led by Solandur K. Balakrishnan, president of Solandur and 72 ‘Pasana kanmoi’ Farmers’ Association, farmers, including a large number of women, staged the protest demanding full crop insurance, stating they had suffered 100% crop loss in the year 2017-18 after the failure of north-east monsoon.

A day after the district administration announced that Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AICI) had agreed to pay compensation of ₹175 crore for the year 2017-18 and the same would be credited into the bank accounts of the affected farmers, the farmers staged the protest, alleging that the insurance company had come forward to compensate only 25% of the loss.

Addressing the farmers, Mr. Balakrishnan said despite the best efforts taken by Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, the AICI had resorted to dilatory tactics and attempted to deny the due benefits to the affected farmers. He demanded 100% compensation as the farmers had suffered 100% crop loss. As the farmers suffered crop loss for the third successive year during 2018-19 due to failure of north-east monsoon, he demanded that the government pay drought relief to the farmers so that they could come out of debt traps and take up farming in the coming season.

The farmers gave up the stir after Joint Director of Agriculture L. Sornamanickam and Personal Assistant to Collector (Agriculture) S.S. Shaiek Abdullah assured that the district administration would strive to secure full compensation. They said the ₹175 crore released by AICI formed only the first two instalments and assured that the balance would be released by the end of this month. Officials said 1.53 lakh farmers had insured their paddy and other crops raised in 1.25 lakh hectares in 2017-18.