State gives Rs 3,500 cr to about 1.20 cr affected farmer families
Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government provided a total Rs 3,500 crore as "immediate crop rehabilitation relief" to 1.20 crore affected farmer families after natural calamities in the past eight years since inception of the programme.
It was Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's brainchild to introduce the system — in 2013 — of giving immediate crop rehabilitation relief helping farmers plunge back into agricultural activities with an instant flow of cash in their hands despite incurring heavy loss with their produce getting damaged in natural calamity. It is given in mission mode within maximum 30 days time after a natural calamity.
Farmers get the benefit of immediate crop rehabilitation relief apart from the compensation against crop insurance, which takes a longer time. Bangla Shashya Bima is the crop insurance in Bengal for which the state government pays the entire premium.
The same was provided to genuinely affected farmers after every natural calamity since 2013 including flood after cyclone Phailin in 2013, flood due to incessant rainfall in 2017, cyclone Bulbul and Fani in 2019 and super cyclone Amphan last year. The affected farmers due to cyclone Yaas are also getting the "immediate crop rehabilitation relief" of Rs 6,000 each. The total number of farmers, who will receive the benefit, will get finalised after verification of their applications through Duare Tran outreach programme.
Around 62 lakh farmers in the state at present also receive Rs 6,000 per year under Krishak Bandhu scheme. "Immediate crop rehabilitation relief was first introduced in Bengal and it immensely helped distressed farmers to carry on with agricultural activities overcoming the loss. Such initiatives only led to three times increase in the average income of farmers," said senior state government officer.
At the same time, at least 2 lakh farmers are estimated to be provided with salt resistant variety of seed, which has been named as Nona Swarna by the Chief Minister, for paddy cultivation where saline water inundated agricultural land due to cyclone Yaas in East Midnapore, North and Soutrh 24-Parganas. Each farmer will get 6 kg seed free of cost for a bigha of land. The state Agriculture department has already started its procurement.
The state Agriculture minister said Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay: "Besides providing an impetus to the agriculture sector soon after a natural disaster, such initiatives of the Chief Minister has ensured increase in the state's GDP."
"Such relentless effort of the Chief Minister for the past 10 years has given a new dimension to the state's agricultural sector," said Honourary Advisor in the state Agriculture department and Trinamool Congress MLA from Durgapur Purba Pradip Majumder.
Taking a new initiative, the state government is also preparing community seed beds. It would take a month time to prepare the saplings at the seed beds and takes four to five percent of the total agricultural land.
