Reiterating the government’s “commitment” to help paddy farmers, the Minister make it clear that Kerala has written to the Centre seeking financial help to assist farmers who had sustained losses due to the vagaries of climate.
| Photo Credit: K.K. Mustafah
Climate change-induced weather vagaries inflicted a cumulative loss of around ₹110 crore to paddy farmers in Kerala in the just-concluded summer season, Agriculture Minister P. Prasad has said.
Replying to a Calling Attention motion in the Kerala Assembly on July 1, Mr. Prasad said the combined effect of heatwave-like and drought-like conditions that persisted in Kerala from February to May have impacted paddy farming in 6,369 ha in the State, inflicting a direct loss of ₹1.25 crore and an indirect loss of ₹1.36 crore for farmers.
However, the major loss occurred in the extreme heavy rainfall that followed the summer, which destroyed a total of 7,124 ha of paddy belonging to 9,264 farmers. The preliminary loss due to this is estimated at ₹106. 86 crore, said the Minister.
During the current paddy procurement season, a total of 5,58,412 tonne of paddy was procured from 1,98,214 farmers in the State, he said.
‘Steps on to pay arrears’
However, of the ₹1,581.43 crore to be paid as procurement price to farmers, only a sum of ₹1,173.81 crore has been paid so far, while the State is yet to pay ₹407.62 crore to 53,818 farmers, said the Minister.
Steps have been taken to pay the remaining arrears to the farmers. The Centre has also to release ₹1,079.5 crore to Kerala with respect to paddy procurement. The paddy procurement price is paid to the farmers by adding a State incentive bonus along with the minimum support price (MSP) announced by the Central government. The government is also examining the report of the commission appointed to make paddy procurement more efficient, said the Minister.
Reiterating the government’s “commitment” to help paddy farmers, the Minister made it clear that Kerala wrote to the Centre on June 26 seeking financial help to assist farmers who had sustained losses due to the vagaries of climate.
The Minister also assured that he would visit the Union Agriculture Minister in Delhi in person to brief him about the gravity of the problems faced by farmers in Kerala.
