From now on, damage to crops due to extreme cold or frost will be considered a natural calamity and the affected farmers will be eligible for financial relief from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) or the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).
The Union Cabinet, at a meeting on Thursday, approved the recommendation of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Drought to this effect. So far, crops damaged in natural calamities such as drought, floods, cyclone, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslip, avalanche, cloud burst and pest attack were eligible for relief under the SDRF and NDRF.
However, since the incidence of damage to crops in extreme cold or frost has gone up in recent years, the government set up the EGoM.
The EGoM, earlier headed by Pranab Mukherjee, will now be chaired by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, it is learnt.
In another decision, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs set the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane, payable by sugar mills to farmers, for 2012-13 at Rs. 170 a quintal linked to a basic recovery rate of 9.5 per cent, subject to a premium of Rs. 1.79 a quintal for every 0.1 percentage point increase in recovery above that level. This has been raised from Rs. 145 a quintal in 2011-12.
