The Centre may disburse over Rs 8,000- Rs 10,000 crore to farmers as compensation for the loss of kharif crop which got damaged due to excessive rains in October and November last year. The amount is expected to be released by April 20. The Ministry of Agriculture has also asked states to conduct yield assessment of rabi crop also to assess the damage. The Centre disbursed compensation of around Rs 4,500 crore to farmers in Maharashtra a few weeks ago.
Officials of agriculture ministry said that excess monsoon rains and the floods caused by them affected crops in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Karnataka, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Bihar. Bihar has not sought compensation for kharif crop loss due to excessive rains and flood.
“ The maximum payout now would be going to Madhya Pradesh where Rs 2,500 crore-3,000 crore would be disbursed, followed by Karnataka (Rs 1,500 crore), Rajasthan (Rs 1,200 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 800-1,000 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs 600 crore),” officials added. The compensation for farmers in Rajasthan includex losses incurred due to locust attacks, which damaged standing crops in January-February 2020 besides the kharif crop losses.
“The ministry is pushing insurance companies to release the compensation at a time when farmers are facing severe problems during lockdown,” officials added. The Maharashtra government has sought Rs 7,207-crore financial assistance from the Centre to compensate farmers for their crop damages due to unseasonal rain. Unseasonal rain has damaged more than 67.52% of the total kharif crop sown this year. As per the Maharashtra government claim, it has damaged 94 lakh hectares of crop and 103.52 lakh farmers were severely affected. in the state.
According to Skymet, the country as a whole received 110 per cent of the long period average (LPA) of 89 centimetres of rainfall during the four-month-long southwest monsoon period, making it to the above normal category. Among meteorological divisions, Central India and Southern Peninsula received the maximum rainfall of 129 per cent and 116 per cent of their LPA, respectively. Among the 36 meteorological sub-divisions, western Madhya Pradesh with 161 per cent of its LPA emerged as the largest surplus, while the subdivision that includes Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi had a deficiency of 42 per cent.