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Call to enhance crop insurance amount gets louder
As the Central drought assessment team visited a couple of villages in districts like Ariyalur, Perambalur, Pudukkottai and Tiruchy on Jnauary 25, farmers listed their various problems and said that apart from the monsoon failure, the failure to initiate steps by the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board was another cause for an unprecedented drought in the State in past 70 years.
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The farmers also demanded to enhance the Prime Minister’s crop insurance scheme so that they could get at least the input costs.
The team, comprising Dr B Ganesh Ram, Research Officer (Agriculture), Shri Ratna Prasad, DGM (R), Food Corporation of India, Dr Paul Pandian, and Fisheries Development Commissioner accompanied by Dr C N Maheshwaran, Commissioner (SSS), first took stock at Thirupattur, a rain-fed village in Manachanallur block of the district, where 100 per cent of the maize cultivation taken up in 221 hectares has been affected by drought.
Similarly, about 125 hectares of the cotton cultivation has failed, with farmers expecting less than 10 per cent of the potential yield. “We spent Rs 25,000 per acre for the maize crop.
By this time, we should have been negotiating with the traders for selling the harvest. Due to the failure of monsoon, the maize cultivation has completely withered, I have lost around Rs 1.25 lakh,” K Ponnusamy, a maize farmer told the team.
Subsequently, they visited the Madakudi village in Lalgudi block where farmers complained about not receiving Cauvery water for irrigation. “We have tried sinking bore wells up to 1,000 feet, but there was no sign of water. The Central government is equally responsible for the drought as the Cauvery water was not properly shared between the riparian States. Compensation should be fair and should reach farmers at the earliest,” Puliyur Nagarajan, state president of farmers wing, Tamil Maanila Congress, told the team.
At Ariyalur and Perambalur, the farmers besieged the team with wilted crops and urged them to recommend for increase sum under the insurance scheme. “The compensation amount announced by the state government is not sufficient. The farmers have availed loans from private parties at higher interest rate. So, the insurance amount should match at least the input cost”, R Raja Chidambaram, Tamilaga Vivasayyigal Sangam State secretary appealed to the central team.
Recommend compensation for livestock loss too, say farmers
The central drought assessment conducted an assessment of the drought-hit areas in western TN for the second day on Wednesday. They inspected a few places in Erode district, before visiting some pockets in Tirupur and Coimbatore districts.
The team will leave for Delhi on Thursday and is expected to submit a comprehensive report on Friday. During the inspection of dried turmeric and maize crops and banana plantations at Kunnathur and Kupeepalayam villages in Annur Union, Coimbatore district, Vijay Raj Mohan, Director at Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare - Ministry of Agriculture, who led thet team, said that Coimbatore has suffered the worst due to drought. Farmers were disappointed as the committee visited only one or two places in each district.
Kumarasamy (62) said that he was forced to reduce the number of cattle as he was unable to provide fodder and water to them. Expressing his inability to repay the bank loan, he appealed to the committee to waive the loans obtained by ryots as their crops failed. Farmers also pressed the team to recommend for speedy completion of the Athikadavu-Avinashi Groundwater Recharge Scheme. At Tirupur, farmers urged the central committee to ensure that the real victims of the drought received due compensation, without hassle. They asked the members to consider losses incurred due to drop in reproduction of livestock and cattle. They told the committee that a meagre compensation of Rs 5,500 to Rs 7,500 an acre announced by the State Government was insufficient compared to the amount they had invested to raise the crops. Farmer Chinnasamy of S Periyapalayam sought a compensation of Rs 40,000 for an acre of dry land cultivation and Rs 1 lakh compensation for sugarcane.
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