Southern Districts Farmers’ Association has demanded declaration of Virudhunagar district as drought-hit and appealed to the district administration to immediately begin enumeration of crop loss.

In a statement, the association Virudhunagar district president, R. Ram Pandian, said that Virudhunagar district had registered significant reduction in the rainfall during the northeast monsoon this year.

“We have already pointed out that poor rainfall has led to loss to farmers in the district during the monthly farmers’ grievances redressal meeting held last month,” the statement said.

Stating that farmers in the eastern parts of the district were in a plightful situation as they had been forced to allow cattle to graze on their paddy field due to crop loss caused by lack of adequate rainfall.

Similarly, maize and millet crops had withered completely in their early stages of growth because of failure of monsoon.

Besides, the increasing cost farm inputs like seeds, ploughing, and fertilizers, have forced farmers to give up cultivation.

Mr. Ram Pandian expressed regret over the Department of Agriculture and Department of Revenue not having begun the enumeration of loss of crops.

The farmers suspected that the officials were planning to not take up enumeration work citing the forthcoming election as an excuse.

Complaining that the village administrative officers had not maintained the crop cultivation records properly, the strategy to be adopted by the crop insurance company to assess crop loss still remained a mystery.

Hence, Mr. Ram Pandian appealed the district administration to immediately begin the crop loss enumeration in the district to enable the farmers get due compensation from the insurance company and also get drought relief from the government.

Source - https://www.thehindu.com