Telangana govt to provide Rs 10k per acre as aid for crop damage

Hyderabad: The Congress govt has decided to pay 10,000 per acre as compensation for crops damaged in the state due to unseasonal rain, gales, and hailstorms. Preliminary estimates put the damages at about 24,000 acres in Telangana so far.
Though a final report on the assessment of damaged crops was yet to be compiled, agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao assured that the state govt would support the farmers. Officials have been asked to enumerate farmer-wise crop damages.
Despite the Telangana govt joining the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the Congress govt would pay the farmers from its budget because the crop insurance scheme was yet to be implemented in the state. While the central govt's prescribed norm is 6,000 per acre for crop damages due to unseasonal rains, the Congress govt decided to extend 10,000 per acre.
The agriculture department is estimating the crop loss due to the recent unseasonal rains. Maize and paddy crops were the worst hit in Kamareddy and Nizamabad districts. The standing crop of maize suffered extensive damage in parts of the Mahabubabad district. Mango crops suffered damage in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, Medak, and Sangareddy districts. Thunderstorms damaged paddy crops in several areas in Nizamabad district. The crops were also damaged in Mulugu, Vikarabad, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, and Mancherial districts.
Nageshwar Rao, along with his cabinet colleagues Ponnam Prabhakar and D Sridhar Babu, inspected the damaged crops in Ibrahimnagar in Chinnakodur mandal of Siddipet district on Friday. They interacted with the farmers. Officials of the agriculture and horticulture departments were directed to conduct an accurate enumeration of crop loss so that the govt could extend compensation to the affected farmers.
Ponnam Prabhakar said the govt would compensate every farmer whose crops were damaged. There were reports that even red chilli crops were damaged, and an assessment of the same was underway in various districts.
In a related development, BRS MLA and former minister T Harish Rao demanded that the Congress govt extend input subsidy to tenant farmers too, whose crops were damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms.