Publication Date : 10-05-2013
The state agriculture department has proposed a package of 90 million Indian rupees (US$1.66 million) to compensate the nearly 130,000 farmers of Burdwan and West Midnapore whose crops were damaged in the first spell of hailstorm last month.
The proposed package includes free distribution of seeds and fertilisers to the farmers; the plan is to distribute six-kg of high-quality seeds and 18 kg of fertilisers to each farmer.
The proposal has been approved by the state agriculture minister Moloy Ghatak and submitted to the state disaster management department for sanctioning the funds.
The state government had earlier announced an ex gratia of 200,000 Indian rupees each to families of nine persons who were killed by lightning and related calamities in April.
Efforts are now being taken to provide assistance to farmers in areas where the hailstorm had caused considerable damage to paddy, sesame and groundnut cultivation.
A field survey conducted by the department has revealed that Boro cultivation (cultivation from November-May under irrigated condition) in the two districts have been hit the most with 11,066 hectares in West Midnapore and 16,000 hectares in Burdwan being damaged completely. Apart from paddy, cultivation of 500 hectares of groundnut and 5,528 hectares of sesame have been affected in West Midnapore.
As per the norm, farmers whose crops are affected during any natural disaster is eligible for crop insurance. However, possessing Kisan Credit Card (KCC) is mandatory to apply for insurance. Since many of the farmers whose crops were damaged in the hailstorm do not possess KCC, the state agriculture minister had promised them compensation.
Ghatak had said the department is coming up with a plan to help the non-KCC cardholders. However, the compensation package prepared by the department does not include any special financial assistance for the non-KCC cardholders for the time being. "Instead of providing financial assistance we have decided to provide seeds and fertilisers to all farmers. This will help them to overcome their financial losses to a great extent so that they can go ahead with the cultivation in the forthcoming season," said an official. Agriculture department to meet south Bengal officials
The state agriculture department will hold a meeting with officials of the districts of south Bengal on preparedness for the rainy season in Writers' Buildings on 20 May.
US$1 = 54 Indian rupees
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