A farmer on drought-hit land.
Credit: DH Photo
Hubbali: Virupakshappa Latti in Dharwad district has invested around Rs four lakh for sowing, fertiliser, compost, labour and other expenditure for his 60-acre land. But now, he is expecting 15 per cent crop cultivation, and half of his investment.
No doubt he is a landlord at Hebbal village in Navalgund taluk, but if drought continues next year too, his family will be affected. “We are living in a joint family, crop insurance has not yet been given, and the government is yet to give crop loss compensation,” he said.
Not just in Hebbal, the drought condition is prevalent across the state. Like Virupakshappa, many farmers are in acute distress.
The state government has declared 223 of the 236 taluks in the state as drought-hit, and estimated the crop loss at 48.19 lakh hectare.
NDRF norms
Apart from the crop insurance, both state and Union governments are responsible for giving crop loss compensation. As per the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms, per hectare crop loss compensation is — Rs 8,500 for rain fed, Rs 17,000 for irrigated, and Rs 22,500 for perennial crops or agro forestry.
But, as per the NDRF norms, a farmer can get crop loss compensation for a maximum of only two hectares. If a farmer has 60 acres of land (24 ha) they will get a compensation for only two hectares, that is a maximum of Rs 17,000 for the rain-fed area.
Nevertheless, even after six months of drought situation, the governments are not ready to give crop loss compensation. The state government said no funds were released by the Centre, while the Centre is asking the state to first spend the SDRF funds, and then automatically the NDRF funds will be released to the state account.
Govt announces temporary relief
On November 30, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced the partial compensation amount of Rs 2,000 as a temporary relief.
"The government spends huge money for other works such as infrastructures, schemes, their programmes, guarantees, and more. But when it comes to farmers, no government is ready to spare money," said farmer leader from Kalaburagi, Dayanand Patil
However, even after one and a half months, the Rs 2,000 compensation too has not been credited to all farmers across the state.
Minister explains why the compensation got delayed
When asked, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said, to prevent double payments for a single survey number land and other clean-up work, they have taken up the verification process, which has taken nearly a month and during which they corrected more than one lakh applications.
After verification, they started to release Rs 2,000 crop loss compensation to farmers taluk-wise. They have already paid to some farmers in a few taluks, and within a couple of days, 90 per cent of farmers will be paid.
“It takes at least 48 hours to process the payment as the money has to go to the RBI and then come to the farmers’ account. Hence, it will take another couple of days,” he said.
The first instalment got delayed due to verification and other processes, the next instalment will reach the farmers within two days after the government releases funds.
Now, they are paying around Rs 900 crore to more than 30 lakh farmers. Once the state gets funds from the Union government, the second instalment will be given, he noted.