A three-member central team, lead by joint secretary of the department of agriculture and farmers’ welfare Priya Ranjan, visited the drought-hit villages in Malegaon taluka on Wednesday to assess damage to crops and water levels in reservoirs.

The team visited around eight villages and spoke with the farmers who had suffered loss during kharif season due to erratic rainfall.

“The teams met the farmers, held dialogues with them, understood the kind of situation that prevailed during and at the end of kharif season, scanned the photographs presented by the farmers and also referred to the rainfall report of the specific regions,” superintendent of agriculture (Nashik) Vivek Sonawane, who accompanied the team, said.

The team will visit Sinnar and Yeola talukas on Thursday with an aim to assess the situation of crops and water availability. The assessment is required to calculate the amount of relief that has to be given to the farmers and the same shall be provided to them through the National Disaster Response Funds.

“The teams visited the farms where farmers had sown cotton, bajra and corn during the kharif season. The damage to the crops was in the range of 50 to 100%,” said Sonawane.

Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com