Hyderabad: The recent unseasonal rains have dealt a double whammy to farmers in Telangana. Before they could recover from the losses to their Kharif crop due to drought and power cuts, the recent rains damaged Rabi crops in 860 villages spread over 103 mandals in nine districts of the state.
Heavy rains and hailstorms have damaged crops in over 75,000 hectares in the nine districts as per the preliminary estimates prepared by the government.
The government thus fears that the agriculture output of the state will see a steep decline this year due to damage to both Kharif and Rabi crops. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed ministers and district collectors to tour all the districts and assess the loss to enable the government to pay compensation to farmers accordingly.
All ministers are currently taking up district tours to assess the damage. Collectors have deployed revenue, panchayat raj and agriculture department staff to visit all the rain-affected mandals and submit reports on the extent of crop damage.
While the TS government is planning to pay compensation to farmers in the form of input subsidy soon, it also wants to approach the Centre seeking financial aid.
“The government will give Rs 5,400 per hectare to rain-affected farmers towards input subsidy. Officials are currently taking up surveys in all the mandals to assess the damage,” said Irrigation Minister Mr T. Harish Rao.
Nalgonda district remained the worst affected with heavy damage caused to crops in 287 villages in 34 mandals, followed by Karimnagar with 286 villages in 17 mandals.
Paddy was the worst hit with crops in 26,632 hectares damaged due to the rains.
Opposition parties meanwhile are demanding that the government declare an “agriculture emergency” to expedite relief measures. “The government is yet to come out with a report on the actual damage caused to crops. There is no announcement on the compensation to be paid to farmers. The government should depute a senior IAS officer to the districts to assess the damage,” said Mr Shabbir Ali, Leader of Opposition in the AP Legislative Council.
