Locust-hit farmers to get compensation from today

Relief to be given from disaster fund; crop insurance payment to take a fortnight: Officials

JAIPUR: Compensation to locusthit farmers from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) will begin from Wednesday, two days after patwaris were given access to disaster management information system (DMIS) to enter details of affected farmers, said officials of the state disaster management and relief department (DMRD).

However, for payout from crop insurance, farmers will have to wait at least a fortnight, said officials of the agriculture department.

DMRD o f f i c i a l s s a i d t he department gives agriculture input subsidy to farmers who suffer crop loss of at least 33%. This is Rs 13,500 for a hectare for a maximum of 2 hectares. For crop insurance, which is a group insurance scheme, the unit for accessing crop loss is a patwar circle.

Rajasthan is hit by the biggest locust attack, which began on May 21, 2019, in Jaisalmer, and is continuing in the second week o f J a nuary. The o ut br e a k reported in May occurred after 26 years.

Chief minister Ashok Gehlot held a videoconference with collectors of affected districts on Sat urday a nd o r dered t he DMRD to start payment of input subsidy to affected farmers in three days.

“We gave access to patwaris on Sunday to fill in details of affected farmers on our system.

LALCHAND KATARIA, Rajasthan Agriculture minister

In districts where this is complete, the fund will be given to collectors for transferring subsidy to the bank accounts of individual farmers,” said Siddharth Mahajan, DMRD secretary.

According to the estimate of crop loss as presented before the CM o n Sat urday, c r o ps o n 134,052 hectare area in 816 villag e s o f 2 2 t e hsi l s o f J a l o r e , Barmer, Jaisalmer and Bikaner districts were devoured by the gregarious adults and hoppers, which came in swarms from Pakistan. About 90,000 farmers in these four districts have suffered crop loss, the estimate said.

“The number of farmers may change because some of the farmers may have farmlands in more than one revenue village,” said a DMRD official, who didn’t want to be named.

The data about number of affected villages is also dynamic because attacks continued as late as on Monday evening, the official added. He said reports from other districts – Gangangar, Hanumangarh, Pali and Sirohi – invaded by locusts are yet to be received by the DMRD, the official said.

The affected farmers will also get relief from the crop insurance companies but that will take some time, said agriculture minister Lalchand Kataria.

“After getting report from districts, we will transfer the first installment of state share in crop insurance to insurance companies and they, in turn, will pay 25% of the sum assured to farmers in 15 days as interim relief,” he said.

Kataria said the farmers are likely to get the relief before the end of January. The major crops that have suffered loss due to locusts are cumin, Isabgol, mustard and wheat.

The agriculture department has increased the subsidy on chemicals for plant protection to 100% up to a maximum of Rs 1,000 for a hectare.

Earlier, this was 50% up to a maximum of Rs 500 per hectare. Apart from this, the collectors of affected districts have been given 10,000 litres of chemical to kill the marauding locusts.

The state government has sanctioned Rs 5 crore for effective management and control of the locust menace, a release from the state government said. “District administrations have been given 450 tractormounted sprayers,” the release added.

What the state government has done so far

vehicles being used for survey and 52 for control of locusts

Collectors given permission to hire 450 tractor-mounted sprayers

Collectors given 10,000 litres of insecticides for use in their areas government employees engaged in locust control work sanctioned for management and control of locust swarms

After getting reports from districts, we will transfer the first instalment of the state share in crop insurance to insurance companies and they, in turn, will pay 25% of the sum assured to farmers in 15 days as interim relief.