PANAJI
Amidst the continuous pounding by rains and widespread reports of damage to standing, ready-to-harvest paddy crop in fields across the State, the government has announced it will pay compensation of Rs 40,000 per hectare for rain-caused losses.
The announcement was made by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday via a post from his official handle on micro-blogging site 'X', formerly Twitter.
“The compensation will be provided under the State Scheme – Shetkari Aadhar Nidhi," Sawant said, adding that farmers will be given Rs 40,000 per hectare and up to a maximum of Rs 1.6 lakh for four hectares," he said.
Sawant, who incidentally holds the agriculture portfolio after the recent death of Ravi Naik, also added that the farmers will be disbursed their compensation by December.
Separately, Director of Agriculture, Sandeep Fol Desai, said agriculture officers across all zones have been directed to speed up their surveys to assess the damage caused by the recent spurt of rains across all zones in the State.
The Zonal Agriculture Officers (ZAOs) and their teams have fanned out to the affected regions and are assessing the damage since Monday.
Fol Desai said the assessment is expected to be completed in a week or two.
