State Agriculture Minister Randhir Kumar Singh on Monday said that the State Agriculture Department has sent directives to all the deputy commissioners to collect block-wise paddy cultivation data and send it to the department by October 15.
He said that the State Government is planning to provide compensation package for farmers affected by deficient rain based on the reports. Singh, who was in city to pay condolences to the family of a BJP leader who died recently at Adityapur, was speaking to media at Circuit House.
"We are keeping an eye on the situation and have asked the district authorities to provide data. We will also not wait for Central government financial aid as we do not meet the parameters of the Central drought package. Based on the report of the paddy cultivation data of all the 260 blocks in the State, we will announce packages to farmers of those blocks which are worst affected," the minister said.
The minister said that the State Government had sent its paddy cultivation data on September 30 based on reports from various districts collected till September 15 to the Union Government.
"However we do not come under in the criteria of drought-affected State as per the Central Government yardstick. The worst affected districts in the State are West Singhbhum (30 per cent) and Simdega (25 percent) which is well below the Central government benchmark. However, we want to update our data as there has been deficient rainfall across state in September and provide compensation," the minister said.
The minister also informed that in the 300 districts of the country declared by the Union Government (in September) as drought-affected there is not a single district of Jharkhand.
"As per our information the Union Government report was based on crop damage assessment till August in which time the State had received good rainfall. Unfortunately, it was in September that we did not receive much rainfall," said Singh. He said that the agriculture department is working to help the farmers face such situation.
"We have also plans to make farmers prepared for monsoon in future with good irrigation facility. We have Rs 360 crore fund from Central government under Prime Minister Agriculture Irrigation scheme," the minister said.
He further the state government was committed to providing full support to the farmers of the state.
"This year not only has the monsoon played truant, the price rise situation has worsened our situation. The previous year, the monsoons were exceptionally good. The next year, people rushed and sowed all their seedlings at the first excuse of rains. But it did not rain enough. This is the toughest period we ever faced in the past decade," an agriculture scientist.