Agri input subsidy to natural calamity hit farmers in Bihar

Crops in an area of about 14 lakh hectares were damaged due to cold wave, unseasonal rains and hailstorm in Bihar in February-March this year, which also took 20 lives, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said today.
Giving this information by way of a suo motu statement in the Assembly, the CM said the state government through Disaster Management department would start payment of agricultural input subsidy to the affected farmers within a week.
The chief minister's detailed reply came a day after opposition BJP had pilloried the government over the issue in the Assembly.
Kumar said 20 persons died in the hailstorm and their families have been given a compensation money of Rs 1.5 lakh each.

When leader of opposition Nand Kishore Yadav persisted in knowing when the payment process would start, an irked CM told him not to indulge in politics over a natural disaster.
Kumar said as per assessment of damage made by the Agriculture department, 19,92,000 farmers had suffered more than 33 per cent damage in their fields in an area of 13,93,762 hectares.

Among them small and marginal farmers numbered 17,56,542 while there are 2,35,685 middle and big land owning farmers, he said.
Referring to crop loss, the CM said 1,126,028 hectares of wheat had been hit, besides 92,785 hectares of maize, 80,599 ha of mansoor, 19,636 ha gram, 24,341 ha season crops and 21,277 ha perennial crops.

He said the state government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1764.3588 crore for payment of agriculture input subsidy. Out of this disaster management department has made available Rs 16.08 crore to Agriculture department for distribution among affected farmers.
Rest Rs 1,750 crore would be made available from state Contingency fund, he added.
The CM said the agriculture input subsidy would be paid to affected farmers through RTG/cheque by organising camps at panchayat level. For transparency, the list of beneficiaries would be displayed on website of the concerned districts and also in newspapers.
He said necessary steps would be initiated to provide crop insurance facility to farmers.