Unseasonal rains damage 106.73 lakh hectares of rabi crops

Unseasonal rains and hailstorms during this month have damaged rabi (winter-sown) crops in 106.73 lakh hectares of area across 14 states as against the earlier estimates of 181 lakh hectares.
Earlier this week, the states had reported damage of rabi crops in about 181 lakh hectares of area due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms, which occurred in three phases -- February 28 to March 2, March 7-8 and March 14-16.
Total cultivable area in rabi season is 600 lakh hectares.
In an official statement, the Agriculture Ministry said that the figures of damaged area have been revised downwards to 106 lakh hectares from 181 lakh hectares after a meeting in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) held yesterday.

In the meeting at PMO, video-conferences with all the affected states were held to assess the actual damage of rabi crops due to untimely rains and hailstorms.
On February 18, before this untimely rains and hailstorms, the Centre had projected that India's foodgrains production is estimated to fall by 3 per cent to 257.07 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June).

Wheat production is estimated to drop slightly to 95.76 million tonnes from 95.85 million tonnes in the previous year.
As per the report, Rajasthan was the worst-affected state with damage to crops in maximum 45.52 lakh hectares, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 26.79 lakh hectares and Haryana at 18.75 lakh hectares.

Earlier this week, Uttar Pradesh reported damage in about 97.29 lakh hectares.
According to the latest data, Madhya Pradesh reported damage in 5.7 lakh hectares, Maharashtra in 3.95 lakh hectares, Punjab in 2.94 lakh hectares and Himachal Pradesh in 1.52 lakh hectares.
Some crop damages have also occurred in Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.
Of the total area affected, major rabi crop wheat suffered damage at over 62 lakh hectares.
The Centre has asked the state governments to render immediate assistance to farmers from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF), which has funds to the tune of Rs 5,270 crore for utilisation in this fiscal.

The state governments have also been asked to submit a memorandum to the Centre in case the expenditure is more than the available fund in SDRF.
As per SDRF norms, the state governments can give input subsidy to farmers at the rate of Rs 4,500 per hectare for rainfed areas, Rs 9,000 per hectare for irrigated areas and Rs 12,000 per hectare for perennial crops.