B. Nagendra, Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports and in-charge of Ballari district, said that his government was committed to pay compensation to all farmers who have lost their crops in the drought.
“Those farmers who have sowed seeds and suffered losses owing to the drought will be compensated. The officials in the Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture and Revenue, are working on it,” Mr. Nagendra said after visiting drought-hit red-gram (tur), maize, sajje (pearl millet), ragi (finger millet) fields at Halakundi, Mincheri, Sanjivarayanakote and other villages in Ballari taluk on Saturday.
“The standing crops are green as the fields received some rains in the past two months. The red-gram is supposed to start pod setting at this time. However, it failed owing to the lack of moisture in the soil. The red-gram crop struggles to remain green to survive without a pod setting. The farmers would not get any yield this year,” K. Mallikarjun, Joint Director of Agriculture, told the minister at a red-gram field in Halakundi village.
As per the crop loss details that Mr. Mallikarjun shared with the Minister, the standing crops on 68,000 hectares were destroyed in the district owing to the drought in the current year.
“Farmers in the district have cultivated chilli, cotton, pearl millet, sunflower, red-gram, ragi and other crops. The crops on 68,000 hectares are dried up as a result of drought. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team had visited the district and took stock of the drought condition here,” Mr. Mallikarjun told the Minister.
In his response, Mr. Nagendra said that the compensation for crop loss in the drought would be given to farmers at ₹8,000 a hectare and directed the officials concerned to take immediate measures to disburse the same to the farmers.
When some of the farmers, who had bought crop insurance, demanded that the Minister ensure that the sum insured for the crop destroyed in the drought would be completely paid to them, Mr. Nagendra said that he would look into the matter and do everything possible to safeguard the farmers’ interests.
Deputy Commissioner Prashanth Kumar Mishra, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Rahul Sharanappa Sankanur, Additional Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Zubaira, Ballari Tahashildar Gururaj and other senior officers accompanied the minister in his tour in drought-hit areas in the district.
