Odisha govt seeks report from district collectors on crop damage due to Phethai

BHUBANESWAR: State special relief commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi on Tuesday sought reports of crop damage due to rain triggered by cyclonic storm Phethai over Bay of Bengal from the district collectors.
In a letter to all the district collectors, the SRC said though forecast about possible rainfall was well disseminated and farmers have taken steps to harvest their corps, the rain might have caused damages to standing kharif crops.
According to Met office, maximum rainfall of 92.4 mm was recorded in Bolangir followed by 82.2 in Hirakud, 77.9 mm at Jharsuguda, 74.4 mm at Sambalpur, 71.8 mm at Sundergarh, 71.5 mm at Deogarh in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 am on Tuesday. Districts like Malakangiri, Gajapati, Rayagada, Angul, Bargarh have also recorded rainfall around 50 mm in the last 24 hours.
The collectors would submit report following joint verification comprising officials of agriculture and revenue departments.
Farmers, who have sustained crop loss of 33 per cent and more will be given agriculture input subsidy (cash assistance to compensate the investment in agriculture) from the state disaster response fund.
The farmers would get assistance at the rate of Rs 6,800 per hectare of land in rainfed/non-irrigated areas and Rs 13,500 per hectare under assured irrigation. Actual farmers would get the assistance.
The crop lands already declared as affected by Titli, subsequent flood and drought during the current financial year shall not be included in the current assessment for subsidy.
This is the third disaster after drought and cyclone Titli and drought that affected agriculture crops this year in various areas.
While severely affected crop areas worth 3.78 lakh hectares damaged due to cyclone Titli and subsequent flood, government declared drought in 2.33 lakh hectares of crop area across nine western Odisha districts, which received scanty rainfall this monsoon season.
Sources in the SRC office said most of the farmers in Ganjam and Gajapati (worst affected by Titli) have already received input subsidy while the distribution for farmers in other districts would be expedited after the Centre releases additional grants from the National Disaster Response Fund.
The Centre on Monday sanctioned Rs 1023 crore for Odisha as financial assistance from NDRF for Titli.