Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said the Telangana government would help farmers who suffered crop losses during the recent hailstorm. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had agreed to pay input subsidy, he said.
He directed the agriculture department officials to take up field visits and prepare list of farmers who had suffered loss. due to the nature’s ire. The Minister held a video conference with district agriculture officials on various issues pertaining to the department.
The Minister announced in the Assembly recently that as per preliminary reports, the hailstorm and untimely rain had caused crop loss in about 40,000 hectares to 50,000 hectares. Stating that insurance coverage to crops was very low in the State, the Minister noted that crops in only 6.5 lakh hectares were insured out of 22 lakh hectares cultivated in the kharif season and only 1.5 lakh hectares out of 13 lakh hectares in the Rabi season of 2016-17.
He directed the officials to encourage every farmer going for institutional credit to opt for crop insurance cover to withstand the risks. He stated that ₹ 224 crore compensation was finalised for crop loss suffered due to drought and flood conditions in 2016 and steps would be taken to disburse the amount to the beneficiary farmers soon by crediting it to their bank accounts.
