Kolkata: The Agriculture department’s preliminary report has identified 107718 hectares of land in 122 blocks spanned across six districts which has witnessed crop damage due to the heavy rain ushered in by the severe cyclonic storm Remal on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday morning conducted an aerial survey of the cyclone affected areas in South 24-Parganas.
Sesame, groundnut, betelvine and vegetable cultivation were affected in Hooghly’s 57963 hectares of land spread across 18 blocks. As many as 22 blocks in North 24-Parganas covering 25884 hectares, 25 blocks in South 24-Parganas with 5024 hectares, 14 blocks in area with 4764 hectares, 25 blocks in East Midnapore spanning 7895 hectares and 18 in Nadia spread across 6188 hectares land, suffered crop damage. About 38970 hectares of land involving sesame cultivation, 10891 hectares of area having groundnut cultivation, 2444 hectares of betelvine and 19276 hectares of vegetable cultivation was affected. “The field report indicated that there was no damage to paddy cultivation, as it was harvested before the severe cyclonic storm hit the state,” said Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, state Agriculture minister.
The minister added that a detailed report pinpointing the exact land affected due to rain was sought from the district level so that necessary formalities for crop insurance can be initiated. Sesame and groundnut are covered under crop insurance while vegetables and betelvine fall under the ‘Horticulture’ category and are not covered under insurance.
“The damage report will be sent to the Disaster Management department in case of vegetables and betel leaves. We will follow its directions regarding compensation for affected farmers,” a Horticulture department official said.
When cyclonic storm Aila had caused damage – vegetable seeds were provided to the farmers while for the betel leaf cultivators, financial assistance was given for reconstruction of the vines. In the coastal areas where saline water has entered cultivable land, the state government will distribute seeds of ‘Nona Swarna’ variety of paddy among the farmers .
After cyclone Yaas had hit the state in June 2021, large stretches of land close to the sea in three districts North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore had become inundated and saline water entered agricultural land posing a barrier to paddy cultivation. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the Agriculture department to come up with an alternative rice variety that can withstand salinity. Experts in the department were engaged in extensive research and cultivation of six salt tolerant paddy varieties. Among them, the state had good success over ‘Nona Swarna’.