PANAJI
Some 323 farmers across five southern talukas of Salcete, Quepem, Sanguem, Dharbandora and Canacona have been enlisted in a recent survey conducted by agriculture officers as having lost 100 per cent of their rabi paddy crop due to the recent spell of unexpected torrential rains due to cyclonic formations in the Arabian Sea.
Agriculture Director Sandeep Fol Desai said Quepem and Sanguem were the two most hit talukas.
In Quepem alone, the crop of 104 farmers who had cultivated paddy in an aggregate of 30 hectares was completely damaged by the pre-monsoon deluge, days before they could commence harvesting operations.
In Sanguem, 96 farmers similarly lost their crop on 43 hectares of farm land.
Salcete was another taluka where farmers were hit hard with 92 farmers who had cultivated paddy in nearly 17 hectares of farmland losing their entire crop.
In Canacona, only one farmer lost his crop over 1.2 hectares while Dharbandora had standing rabi paddy crop destroyed in 6.72 hectares sowed by some 30 farmers.
Fol Desai said, these farmers will be compensated to the best possible extent under the State sector ‘Shetkari Nidhi Yojna’.
Even farmers who do not have a ‘krishi card’ will be compensated but the actual disbursement of the money through direct bank transfer will take a few weeks, he said.
Agriculture officials directly connected with the process of assessing the losses on the ground and processing the claims said the compensation will be computed by factoring in both their cultivation and input costs as well as the value of their expected yield based on the average per hectare yield.
Paddy farmers in Goa have often faced weather related adversities in recent years.
Last year (2024-25), over 2,500 farmers from across the State faced crop damage in the Kharif season when extreme rainfall in July flooded the khazan and other low-lying fields across the State.
All these farmers who had filed claims before their respective Zonal Agriculture Officers (ZAOs) were paid out compensation by the government to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore.
Zonal agriculture officers and their staff in all these five affected talukas of South Goa were on their toes for nearly two weeks since the rains hit on May 21 to conduct the ground surveys and assess the crop damage and compute the losses faced by these 323 farmers.
Fol Desai said, the compensation to be paid to these farmers could go up to Rs 40,000 per hectare and that the department will also propose higher amounts but the government will have to take the final call on the quantum.
