Deputy Commissioner Muddu Mohan on Saturday directed officials to encourage farmers to apply for crop insurance facility in the light of poor rainfall in the district in June. He was chairing a meeting of officials of Agriculture Department here to review steps taken due to poor monsoon.

Mr. Mohan said that Udupi district had received 42 per cent lesser rainfall than usual in June.

This had affected agricultural operations. If the same situation continued, it might affect the paddy crop of farmers. Hence officials should do their best to enrol maximum number of farmers for crop insurance.

All the 146 gram panchayats, Udupi City Municipal Council, Saligrama Town Panchayat, Kundapur and Karkala town panchayats had been brought under the National Crop Insurance scheme. Small farmers in the district should take advantage of this scheme.

Farmers could get details of the insurance scheme from the nearby Raitha Samparka Kendras or bank officials. The last date for enrolling for the National Crop Insurance Scheme was June 30. But a proposal would be submitted to the government to extend the last date for enrolling the scheme, Mr. Mohan said.

Anthony Maria Immanuel, Joint Director of Agriculture said that normally, the district received 1,195 mm of rainfall in June. But this time, so far the district had received only 689.7 mm of rainfall.

His department had kept paddy nurseries ready for 25,000 hectares. If transplanting operations were not taken up in 21 days, it would reduce the yield. The paddy saplings too would also get damaged. If the rains failed, it would affect agriculture in the district.

The department had set up a target of cultivation of paddy in 45,000 hectares of land in the district. But till June 27, only 422 hectares of land had come under paddy cultivation.

Last year in the corresponding period, 4,290 hectares of land was under paddy cultivation, Mr. Immanuel said. Mr. Mohan directed the tahsildars of all three taluks to call a meeting of agricultural and horticultural officers and respond immediately to the problems of the farmers.

Source - http://www.thehindu.com/