Bhubaneswar: The state government Wednesday notified 4.07 lakh hectare cropped area as affected due to unseasonal rains and released Rs 364.76 crore as agriculture input subsidy from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
The government sanctioned the input subsidy in the wake of the Opposition ruckus in the Assembly over the farmers’ issue in the first two days of the winter session.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Bishnupada Sethi said that as many as 19 out of 30 districts have reported crop damage due to the unseasonal rains that occurred between November 15 and 20. The districts are Balasore, Bhadrak, Boudh, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jagatsingpur, Jajpur, Kandhamal, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khurda, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Puri and Rayagada.
According to Sethi, the rain has affected 4,07,100 hectares in 14, 720 villages under 2,460 panchayats of 133 blocks and 257 wards of 38 urban local bodies (ULBs) in 19 districts.
As per norms, the farmers whose agriculture or horticulture crops have been affected to the extent of 33 per cent or above would get agriculture input subsidy at the rate Rs 6,800 per hectare in case of rain-fed areas and Rs 13,500 in case of areas under assured irrigation, Sethi said. However, the assistance to farmers having land holdings of more than 2 hectares will be limited to the ceiling of 2 hectares only.
The highest crop damage of 97,223 hectares has been reported from Ganjam district, followed by Kendrapada (76,345 ha), Jajpur (52,092 ha), Khurda (41,829 ha), Puri (39,952 ha), Bhadrak (30,983 ha), Nayagarh (24,792 ha) and Mayurbhanj (20,742 ha), the SRC said.
Similarly, Cuttack district has reported damage of crops spread across 7,548 hectares while 5,861 hectares of crops have been damaged in Jagatsinghpur, 4,196 hectares in Keonjhar, 1,797 hectares in Gajapati, 1,740 hectares in Boudh, 1,450 hectares in Rayagada, 311 hectares in Kandhamal, 133 hectares in Koraput, 43 hectares in Dhenkanal, 41 hectares in Balasore and 3 hectares in Nabarangpur.
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