From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
New Delhi, Sep 17: With Karnataka suffering one of the worst droughts in recent years with as many as 136 taluks out of the 176 in the State already declared as affected by drought conditions with the total loss to standing crops estimated at Rs 15,635 crore, the State Government has sought for Rs 3,850 crore Central assistance as per the revised State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) norms.
Karnataka’s Revenue Minister V Srinivasa Prasad and Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, who called on Union Minister of State for Agriculture, and Farmers Welfare Dr Sanjeev Kumar Balyan in New Delhi on Wednesday, submitted a detailed memorandum seeking immediate release of Rs 3,700 crore for taking up urgent relief measures in the drought affected taluks.
State’s Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya and Chitradurga MP B N Chandrappa along with senior officials from the State Government accompanied the delegation.
The delegation, in its memorandum, pointed out that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had already submitted a detailed memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 24 at New Delhi seeking Central assistance for drought relief works.
A ten member Inter-ministerial Central Team (IMCT) team was constituted under the leadership of R B Sinha, Joint Secretary of Union Agriculture Ministry, which formed four groups and toured the State extensively from September 9 to 11 to assess crop loss damaged due to drought.
The joint survey by the IMCT team comprising officers of Agriculture and Revenue Ministries had assessed the total crop loss at Rs 15,635 crore, the memorandum said and sought Central assistance of Rs. 3850 crore as per the revised SDRF/NDRF norms.
The memorandum explained that the State Government has already released Rs 216 crore towards input subsidy due to hailstorm in March 2015.
Another Rs 196.50 crore has been released to take up drought mitigation measures. Due to the dual calamities in last six months, the State Government has already exhausted funds in SDRF and therefore is in urgent need of Central assistance to tide over severe drought condition in the State.
As many as 36 taluks have been declared as drought affected. More than 30 lakh hectars of agriculture and horticulture crops have been affected and the loss is estimated at Rs.15636 crore.
Karnataka has been facing drought for the fifth consecutive year and hence the situation is serious, the memorandum said.
The total targeted sown area in Kharif Season for Agriculture crops is 73.00 lakh hectare. Out of this, 60.44 lakh hectare is the area sown and 12.56 lakh hectare remains unsown due to deficient rainfall.
The State Agriculture Department had estimated that 28.88 lakh hectare of agriculture crops have suffered more than 33 % loss amounting to Rs14471.37 crore (area affected small and marginal farmers 18.77 lakh hectare and other than small and marginal Farmers is 10.11 lakh hectare).
As per revised guidelines, the Central assistance has been sought for input subsidy of Rs 2089.58 crore for Kharif 2015.
Department of Horticulture had estimated that 1.88 lakh hectare of horticulture crops have suffered more than 33% loss, amounting to Rs 1164.70 crore, (area affected small and marginal farmers 1.26 lakh hectare and other than small and marginal Farmers is 61,242 hectare)as per revised guidelines, assistance sought for input subsidy for Kharif 2015 is Rs 188.60 crore.
The weak monsoon has also affected fodder availability. The demand for fodder will increase in the coming months. The State Government has opened many Ghoshalas and has distributed mini-kits to tide over fodder crisis. The State is also contemplating on buying fodder from neighbouring states to meet future demand of fodder. An amount of Rs 202.31 crore required to meet fodder requirement and cattle care.
The year-wise data of the number of taluks affected by drought conditions during the last five years is:
2011 - 123
2012 - 157
2013 - 125
2014 - 35
2015 - 136