Berhampur,With the announcement of due compensation to the farmers for their crop loss and relaxation of Fair Average Quality(FAQ),certainly a solace for the farmers.But it has no meaning for the famers in Ganjam district.This year inadequate rain and lack of required irrigation,the farmers in the district faced serious problem in raising khariff crop.Somehow,they raised paddy and non-paddy crops and when they about to harvest their ripe crops,rain during last fortnight proved a jolt.Before,the district received continued drizzle and light rain since last more than 8 days,turned into a severe blow for farmers.As,while hardly 25 % of the paddy could be harvested,another 60% paddy keddy left in the farmlands for dry and the rest was about to harvest.Now while the paddy lying for dry,but remained under water got germinated,the to be harvested paddy in farmlands too experiencing snap of the grains.Similarly the non-paddy crops including vegitables too got rotten under the water. Ashok dalei of Madhabandh village in Patrapur block,raised late paddy in his 4.2 acres of land and not harvested.Now the entire crop almost touched to the ground unable to copeup with the rain and started germinating.Unfortunately,he didnot insured the crop as he raised it on hand loans.He said the plants can only be cut after around a week of rain stops.But who will purchase my paddy ,he questioned and cursed his fate.Expressing similar view Baidhar panda of Dunguruguda village under Chikiti block said all my harvested crop of 1.5 acres left in the farmland to dry,which drenched repeatedly and germinated as well discoloured.The FAQ norms may be relaxed,but who will receive my paddy.Sidheawar nahak of Jharedi village in Ganjam block,who raised vegitable in around an acre,is not a worried man,as the tomoto plants at flowering stage got rotten.Incidently,the three are the share croppers and raised the crops with hand loan.Now they are worried a lot how to repay the loans and the crop share.Similar condition of most of the farmers in the district.Not only the paddy,this year there will be acute scarcity of straw as they too got rotted in the farmlands said Samir pradhan of Aska.Surprisingly,despite the clearcut direction of govt and district administration no revenue officials reached for assessment of the crop loss.The tribal farmers of Nadiamba in Polosara block alleged that rain continued and no official visited their lands.However,BDO of Ganjam block Achyutananda jani with tehsildar Sukant chandra mishra with revenue staffs inspected the farmlands of Kalajamuna,Borigaon etc in the block today.The farmers in the block told the officials that the paddy crop in all the 15 panchayats got damaged totaly.Meanwhile,Simanchal nahak,secretary of Rushikulya Rayat mahasabha has urged the administration to ensure the payment of the cdrop insurence amount.He said,the farmers are not aware fully about the crop insurence due to lack of crop insurence and the insurence agencies not paying the amount on various pretext.He said as per the norms the harvested paddy can kept in the farmlands for 14 days to dry and if the crop suffers damage due to natural calamity,the farmers can get the insured money fully and they need to inform the agriculture officerinsurence agency with in 72 hours of the calamity.The farmers are paying 2 % of the crop as insurence premium and the govt also pays 2% to the insurence agency.In natural calamity,while the district administration pays input subsidy to the victim farmer,the insurence agencies on various plea not pays the insured amount.Citing instance,Nahak said in 2021 the district experienced crop loss due to unseasonal rain and after the joint survey,the administration sent a report to insurence agencies to pay the insured money.But on various pretext the agencies didnot paid insured money to farmers in 9 panchayats.As the farmers organisation demanded farmers of 6 panchayas were paid,but still the farmers of 3 panchayats which suffered 90 % crop loss not yet received the insured money.As the insurence agencies has their office at bhubaneswar,its not possible on the part of victim farmers to approch them.Nahak said the insurences agencies get around Rs ten crores as premium from the farmers and govt,but they pays money on the basis of calculating the crop production of five years.For life insurence the insured amount paid at the earliest,but not for the farmers,said Nahak and urged the govt to look into the matter.
