The Agriculture Department may have disbursed a compensation of Rs five crore to most farmers for crop losses on account of heavy showers this year, but meteorologist M R Ramesh Kumar attributed the crop damage to 47 per cent excess rainfall resulting from global warming or climate change.
Meteorologist and retired scientist M R Ramesh Kumar said, “The crop loss was due to heavy rains. It was purely because of local phenomenon. Indian sub continent got 8 per cent surplus rainfall while Goa received 47 per cent excess rainfall. This year we got intense rainfall. On July 8, we received 236 mm of rainfall. Such incidents are bad for agriculture.”
“Such things can be attributed to global warming or climate change. We have 122 days of rainfall starting from June 1 to September 31. But the rainfall is not uniform. For example this year, the monsoon arrived on May 30 over Kerala coast, two days in advance, and covered the entire Indian sub continent by July 2. But the active and break spells were not uniform. This caused damage to crops. The seasonal rainfall from June to September was okay, but the day-to-day distribution was not the same," he said.
According to Kumar, Goa received more than 150 inches of rainfall this year while two stations received close to 200 inches.
He said in the recorded history of 124 years of rainfall, this year was the highest with June and July contributing to about 90 per cent of the seasonal total.
Environmentalist Ramesh Gauns said, “The rains were heavy this year because the oceans were hot because of the warm current. This caused the cloud formation to continue.”
According to him, in the decades of sixties and seventies, the rains used to be much regular.
He predicted that in the near future the rain is going to create havoc in Goa also if corrective measures are not taken on time and people do not realise the gravity of the situation.
“The hills in Goa are not new. They have existed since the formation of Western Ghats. But they are being destroyed and the government hardly realises the importance of the hills. This is the sad thing,” he said.
Meanwhile speaking to mediapersons, Agriculture Director Sandeep Foldessai said approximately 3,500 applications for compensation for crop damage were received by the department and all of them were processed.
“We have transferred the compensation amount to the maximum number of farmers. There are two types of farmers - paddy growers and vegetable growers. Some farmers did not have Krishi Cards, but we identified them and paid the compensation,” he said.
“It is an ongoing process. If a new application is received then inspection is carried out and the application is processed. There cannot be a cut off date,” he said.
New agri policy likely by next month
PANJIM: The new agriculture policy is likely to be notified by next month, sources in the Agriculture Department said.
According to highly-placed sources, the policy has been sent to the Chief Minister's Office and it will be notified after being approved by the State cabinet.
“The policy has been sent to the Chief Minister’s Office. It will be notified after discussion in the State cabinet. It will take some time,” a source told O Heraldo.
Last month, Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik had said that the agriculture policy will focus on reviving fallow lands for productive use, besides providing better facilities to farmers.
He also claimed that the policy will not only help to revive agriculture in the State, but will dissuade the people from selling their fields to outsiders.
Source - https://www.heraldgoa.in
