Crop damage in 1,56,908 acres in Adilabad dist

Adilabad: Standing crops were damaged in 1,56,908 acres due to incessant rains in Adilabad district, as per the survey conducted by agriculture and revenue officials so far. The officials have completed nearly 85 per cent of the survey and they have to inspect several other villages.

There were continuous rains from July 16 to August 7 in the district and standing crops in various categories were damaged in several thousands of acres. Hundreds of farmers and villagers requested the revenue and agriculture officials to compensate crop damage.

As per the preliminary surveys (inspections), crops were damaged in 1,14,197 acres and the damage was estimated at Rs 38 cr then. However, a large number of farmers complained that their names were not included in the affected farmers’ list. They made repeated complaints to the higher officials in this regard.

Following the complaints from farmers, the district officials have asked the divisional level officials to conduct a fresh and detailed survey of crop damage. The second survey commenced on August 7 and as they could not complete the survey before August 3, the officials had sought some more days to complete the task. The second deadline ended on September 13 (Friday).

According to officials, crop damage survey was conducted in 910 villages in 39 mandals. The latest survey indicated that 97,235 farmers had suffered crop losses due to incessant rains in July- August. Crop damage was seen in large areas in Adilabad and Sirpur Kagaznagar Assembly constituencies. The detailed survey has not yet been completed in villages of Bela, Jainath, Kagaznagar and Bejjur mandals.

The prescribed rates of compensation are: Rs 10,000 per hectare for cotton, Rs 6,250 for soyabean, tuwar, green gram and black gram, Rs 5,000 for jowar and Rs 8,833 for maize per hectare. Cotton farmers lament that the compensation specified by the government is meager as they have spent about Rs 25,000 per acre. If crop damage in a field is more than 50 percent, then only it is considered for payment of compensation. So, many farmers lament that the crop damages in their fields were not considered by the officials. Farmers demand early payment of compensation as per the survey reports already prepared by the officials.