The farmers of Dharwad district who have been hit by intense drought finally have some respite as interim crop insurance has been sanctioned. However, compensation for crop loss, which has been a major demand of drought-hit farmers, remains elusive.

Anticipating a good monsoon, the farmers in the district had opted for an early sowing. However, there was a delay in monsoon entering the district.

In July, the farmers cheered as the district received copious rain, but the monsoon started to fade in the successive months. This led to severe crop damage and the government which conducted a joint survey, declared all the eight talks in Dharwad district as drought-hit.

According to the drought survey report, the district has incurred 91% damage in agriculture crops, and 78% damage in horticulture crops during the kharif season marked by scanty rainfall. The assistance as per National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms for this crop loss is estimated at Rs 160.9 crore.

Among these drought-hit talks, the maximum agriculture crop loss area-wise is in Dharwad taluk (42,158 hectares) and the horticulture crop loss is in Hubballi Rural taluk (6,395 hectares). For crop damage (both agriculture and horticulture) on a total area of 1.5 lakh hectares, the NDRF assistance proposed is Rs 144.3 crore for agriculture crops and Rs 16.5 crore for horticulture crops.

This report was submitted to the government in the first week of October.

However, two months had lapsed but there is no concrete assurance from the Union or the state government on releasing compensation for crop loss.

Irked with the government's unresponsive attitude, various pro-farmer organisations have been staging protests demanding early release of compensation.

DC Gurudatt Hegde said that for the 2023 kharif season, farmers who had enrolled on the crop insurance scheme for maize, paddy, cotton, onion and potato have been sanctioned interim crop insurance relief and the process of remitting the amount to the bank accounts of the farmers had already started.

He said that Rs 31.8 crore interim crop insurance relief has been sanctioned to as many as 46,937 farmers who had enrolled in the crop insurance scheme.

Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com