As untimely rains damaged kharif crops, particularly paddy and cotton, in States such as Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Centre was waiting for reports from the States on the volume of damages. Talking to reporters here on Saturday, Mr. Tomar agreed that there had been damages to the crops and added that agriculture was vulnerable to unpredictable rains.

When asked about announcing compensation to the farmers, he said the procedures would be followed as per the reports from the States. “Crops have been damaged due to the unseasonal rains. The Centre was waiting for inputs from the States to assess the extent of damages,” Mr. Tomar said. “Despite all measures in place, cultivators are at the mercy of nature,” he added.

Explaining the process, he said the States had State Disaster Relief Funds for providing compensation to farmers and if necessary, funds from the National Disaster Relief Fund would be released considering the reports from the States on damages.

Minimum Support Price soon

When asked about the delay in announcing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of rabi crops, he said it would be announced very soon. Farmers organisations had been demanding that the MSP for rabi crops should be announced soon as the sowing had started. In the last two seasons, the MSP was announced in September.

Mr. Tomar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate a two-day convention of start-ups in the agriculture sector on Monday. He said about 300 start-ups would showcase their innovation related to precision farming, post-harvest and value add solutions, allied agriculture, waste to wealth, mechanisation for small farmers, supply chain management and argi-logistic on the first day. Around 1500 start-ups would participate in the meet. Mr. Tomar said the number of start-ups in the sector had increased to 2000 from 100 in 2014. “This platform would facilitate start-ups to interact with farmers, farmers’ producing organisations, agri experts and corporates etc,” a government release said.

Mr. Modi will also electronically transfer ₹ 16,000 crore to the bank accounts of over 8.5 crore farmers as part of the PM-Kisan scheme, the direct support of ₹ 6,000 annually to the farmers. He will also launch the One Nation One Fertiliser scheme where all subsidised soil nutrients urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), muriate of potash (MoP) and nitrogen (N), phosphorous(P) and potassium (K) (NPK) will be marketed under a single brand ‘Bharat’ across the country. “The PM will be launching ‘Bharat urea bags’ during the event,” Mr. Tomar said.

Source - https://www.thehindu.com