COIMBATORE: The district administration has started assessing the crop losses caused by drought ahead of providing financial aid to farmers. It has been found that 276 of the 295 revenue villages have been affected by drought.
Meanwhile, the government has accepted a demand from the Farmers Association for compensation to those who have taken lands on lease. It is for the first time that the government is giving compensation to lessees.
“To protect every farmer, the government has ordered an assessment of farmers who are cultivating leased lands. The enumeration team has started accessing their crop losses,” said S Chandrasekaran, Joint Director of Agriculture, Coimbatore.
“Earlier, compensation for drought compensation was provided to land owners and lessees who had legally valid documents. This is that first time that all cultivators, including lessees and lessors, are getting compensation,” he added.
“Right now we do not know the number of lessees and the area they were cultivating. We will get clear picture after a week when the assessment is completed. Crop losses of all farmers will be taken into account,” he said.
The Farmers Association has welcomed the decision.
“We welcome the decision to provide compensation to all farmers. The relief amount should be based on the ground reality,” said P Kandhasami, State general secretary of Farmers Association. “We regard all cultivators, whether farming one’s own or leased land, as farmers. Last time too, we had demanded compensation for lessees. But the government provided drought compensation only to lessees who had lease documents,” he added.
Coimbatore district had received 820.6 mm of rain in 2015, but it got only 223 mm in 2016, a deficit of 67.5 percent. There was only 109.1 mm rain during the Northeast Monsoon as against the normal 333.3 mm.
This affected maize in 8,230 of the total 9,869 hectares cultivated under rain-fed conditions.