Enumeration of crop damages caused by the heavy unseasonal rainfall during this month would be completed before January 29 and all possible assistance would be extended to the affected farmers to overcome the losses, Gangandeep Singh Bedi, Agricultural Secretary, said here on Thursday.
“The rainfall before and during the Pongal festival in the State had caused extensive damages to crops, causing heavy losses to farmers. The extent of the damage was being enumerated currently by officials of departments of Agriculture, Horticulture and Revenue jointly. The officials have been asked to complete the enumeration before January 29 in all districts,” Mr.Bedi said while speaking to reporters after inspecting the crop damages in some parts of Thanjavur district.
Once the enumeration is completed, a report would be submitted to the Commissioner of Revenue Administration and steps will be taken to extend assistance to the farmers.
Mr. Bedi also disclosed that the government has asked the crop insurance companies to pre-pone the crop cutting experiments to assess the yield so that the compensation for yield losses would be disbursed to the affected farmers at the earliest.
Answering a query on relaxing the norm that the crop should have sustained 33% damage to be eligible for sanction of compensation, Mr.Bedi pointed out it was a Central government rule for sanction of compensation from disaster relief fund.
However, farmers can get compensation under crop insurance even if there was five percent yield loss. “Our objective is to stand by farmers and extend all possible help to them in these difficult times,” Mr. Bedi affirmed.
Mr. Bedi, who also inspected the pilot run of a paddy drier at the Director Purchase Centre in Thanjavur district to help farmers reduce the moisture content in paddy, said steps would be taken to purchase and deploy more paddy driers in Thanjavur and other districts. The driers can help reduce the moisture content in paddy from 25% to about 15%. Two more paddy driers, purchased by Agricultural Engineering Department, was scheduled to arrive in Thanjavur on Thursday evening, he said.
Based on the success of the initiative, steps will be taken to buy more machines and deploy them in other districts, he added.