Singh asks Nitish to release SDR fund to rain-hit farmers

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to use money from State Disaster Response Fund to help farmers, who have been affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorm.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Singh said crops in about 1.82 lakh hectares of area in the state have been affected due to unseasonal rain and there is an urgent need to distribute compensation to farmers as per insurance schemes, according to an Agriculture Ministry statement.
The recent unseasonal rain and hailstorms have hit the rabi (winter) crops in 106 lakh hectares in states such as Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and Bihar, as per the Agriculture Ministry data.

Financial assistance is given to affected farmers under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and th National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) in cases of 12 notified natural disasters -- hailstorm, flood, cyclone, cloud burst, drought, earthquake, tsunami, landslides, avalanche, fire, pest attack and cold waves/frost.
As per the existing norms, state governments can utilise funds under SDRF to give input subsidy to farmers at the rate of Rs 4,500 per hectare for rain-fed areas, Rs 9,000 per hectare for irrigated areas and Rs 12,000 per hectare for perennial crops.
The Centre allocates more funds under NDRF to state governments in case the expenditure is more than the available fund in SDRF.