Stalin announces Rs 20,000 per hectare for crop loss

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced relief worth Rs 20,000 per hectare for crops at harvest stage that were damaged in rain in delta and other districts. The government circular read, “The state government has decided to assist farmers with a relief fund for crops damaged due to the delayed rainfall that slashed the districts in the first week of January and February. 

Delta and its surrounding districts received intensified rainfall for a few days following the depression formed over Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean on January 29. This rain in turn had damaged the crops that were ready for harvest.” 

The Chief Minister in turn deputed agriculture minister MRK Panneerselvam, food minister R Sakkarapani and top government officials to inspect the delta regions and assess the extent of crop damage. The ministers along with officials inspected the damage that the unseasonal rain had caused to the crops on about 1.98 lakh acres across Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts in the delta region.  While Sakkarapani inspected the damaged crops in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur district, Panneerselvam inspected the crops in Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam districts.

The ministers then met Stalin at his office in the city and submitted the assessment report.  Based on the requests of farmers, Stalin also wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to relax the paddy procurement norms by accepting paddy upto 22% moisture content at direct procurement centres.
He further directed the revenue and agriculture departments to carry out assessment in each rain-affected district.  He also announced a relief fund worth Rs 20,000 per hectare of paddy that was ready for harvest as per the agriculture rules.

He also announced a relief fund worth Rs 3,000 per hectare in which the seeds were just sowed. 
He directed officials to distribute eight kilogram of seeds per acre to farmers and to distribute harvesting equipment on 50% subsidy through the agriculture engineering department to farmers in the delta region. 
Further decisions would be taken based on the assessments that would be carried in the region.
In the meeting that took place at the secretariat, ministers and top government officials were present.