The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rs.386 crore in compensation disbursed to farmers

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Thursday, Jan 29, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rs.386 crore in compensation disbursed to farmers

Special Correspondent

More farmers covered under insurance scheme
Record paddy productivity achieved

CHENNAI: The State government has disbursed Rs.386 crore to 9,10,297 farmers as compensation for crop loss due to rain in November and December last.

Agriculture crops on about 5.77 lakh hectares and horticulture crops on 19,205 hectares were damaged in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, and Cuddalore districts. During the last financial year, about 5.34 lakh farmers were brought under the agriculture insurance scheme and were given Rs.267.62 crore as compensation. In the current financial year, so far 8.89 lakh farmers had been covered and Rs.17.10 crore collected as premium from them.

Participating in a departmental review meeting here on Tuesday, Agriculture Minister S.Arumugam said that the State had achieved a record paddy productivity on 7.5 lakh hectares by adopting the system rice intensification (SRI) technique. So far, harvest had been completed on 5 lakh hectares. The average productivity was 10 tonnes per hectare. Against the target of 21.50 lakh hectares for paddy coverage in the current financial year, about 18.86 lakh hectares were covered till December. As for millets, against the target of 12 lakh hectares, about 10.16 lakh hectares had been covered. For sugar cane, against 3.50 lakh hectares, 2.6 lakh hectares was covered till December this year.

The Minister reviewed the progress of various Central and State programmes, including the area under various crops, SRI, the crop insurance scheme, the National Agriculture Development Programme, the National Horticulture Mission, micro irrigation, precision farming and uzhavar shandais.

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