On Monday 14 March, the Centre assured farmers that it would provide financial support to all those affected by the unseasonal rains and hailstorms which damaged winter crops like mustard and coriander.
The assurance came from agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh who told the Lok Sabha that a central team would visit the affected states and he had already spoken to agriculture ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab.
Singh said all necessary help would be extended from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) after assessing the extent of damage in different areas.
Besides these four states, farmers in Delhi and Haryana were also affected by the rains and hailstorm over the weekend, which flattened wheat, mustard and coriander crops. As many as 264 villages have been severely affected in Madhya Pradesh alone.
Farmers in Maharashtra too felt the impact as the mango crop was affected in certain parts of the state due to rains in the previous week. The current spell of rains will, however, be beneficial for late-sown crops, if there is no wind or hailstorm in the coming weeks.
Though arriving at any actual figure on the extent of crop loss is difficult at this juncture, agriculture ministry officials, on the basis of the preliminary findings, believe that the impact of rains and hailstorm is less than last year when as many as 15 states were affected due to rains for a longer period during the middle of the harvest season.
Source - freshplaza.com
