Farmers to get compensation for crop loss: Pocharam

Telangana Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on Monday said that the state government is yet to receive report from district collectors on the extent of damage caused to crops due to incessant rains across the state for the past one week. He said though there were reports that the crops over an extent of 5 lakh acres were damaged, there is no official confirmation on this so far.

“The assessment is going on in the districts. Once we get reports from collectors, a final figure on the extent of damage could be arrived at. These details will be submitted to insurance companies to ensure compensation for farmers,” he said.Mr Reddy held a review meeting with department officials to review the situation of crops in state.

He said the kharif crop sown area has increased to 86 per cent due to good rains for the past few days. “The normal crop sown area for kharif is 1.08 crore acres. Already crops were sown in 94 lakh acres. This is 6 lakh acres more when compared with kharif last year. We expect more crops to be sown in the coming days with good inflows into Nagarjunasagar, Sriramsagar and other projects, tanks etc.” Mr Reddy added.

He said the government is taking all the measures to ensure compensation for farmers from insurance firms for crop loss for whatever reasons. “During the Rabi 2015-16, the government paid Rs 70.49 crore premium to  insurance firms towards it’s share. Farmers will get Rs 496.98 crore compensation. This amount will be credited in the bank accounts of farmers directly,” Mr Reddy added.

Agriculture secretary C.Parthasarathy said the infestationof Fall Armyworms, an invasive agriculture pest, has  affected maize crops in 13 districts and government is taking measures to contain it.