0.5m poor flood-hit farmers to receive nominal compensation
Sunday, 12 October 2008
S M Jahangir
The flood-hit marginal farmers are receiving a nominal amount of cash as compensation to their losses of 'Aman' crop as the finance ministry released less than one-fourth of the fund proposed for the rehabilitation scheme, official sources said.
"The finance ministry has sanctioned only Tk 70 million (seven crores) for the rehabilitation scheme against the ministry of agriculture (MoA) proposal for Tk 320 million," a senior agriculture ministry official told the FE.
Such a poor allocation will not only force the authorities to reduce the size of the financial support, but also cut the number of beneficiaries under the special rehabilitation programme, officials said
They also said the flood-affected farmers will start receiving the cash support from the government from this week as the allocated fund has already been sent to the respective district authorities for disbursement among the enlisted farmers.
A senior official said some 500,000 poor and marginal farmers who have lost their current Aman crop due to the recent floods will come under the special rehabilitation scheme.
Each of the affected farmers will receive cash support at a rate of Tk 600 for a 'bigha' of flood-affected Aman cultivated land, he mentioned, adding that a victim would get the support up to Tk 1500 for maximum 2.5 bighas of crop losses.
The fund will be distributed among the affected farmers following lists prepared in the flood-hit districts by the Department of Agriculture Extension DEA with the help of local people's representatives, officials said.
Directed by the agriculture ministry, the DAE earlier submitted their field-level assessment reports on flood-hit areas and the extent of damages, and also prepared the lists of actual affected farmers.
According to the DAE's assessment reports, the latest flashfloods inundated planted Aman crop on nearly 166,000 hectares of lands in 20 districts of the country.
Agri-officials also said planted crops in most of the flood-affected areas have totally been damaged due to the flooding.
Most of the affected farmers could not get any chance to re-plant as the cropping season ended before the floodwaters receded, agri-officials said.
Farmers in some affected areas tried in vain to go for re-plantation of local varieties of crops but could not do so mainly due to paucity of seedlings, they mentioned.
The government earlier earmarked over 5.82 million hectares of land to be brought under Aman plantation this year with the total production estimated at 13.7 million tonnes, officials said.
"The latest flood has certainly dealt a blow to the achievement of the country's overall Aman cultivation target," an agri-official said, adding that the extent of the crop losses caused by the floods was not yet assessed.
Terming the Aman a usually 'flood-prone' crop, the seasonal calamity often takes huge tolls on production of the country's second largest cereal crop.
Last year, the country's Aman output fell to about 9.6 million tonnes against the target of 13 million tonnes due to successive floods followed by the cyclone 'Sidr', which devastated the country's southwestern coastal regions in November 15 last.
The flood-hit marginal farmers are receiving a nominal amount of cash as compensation to their losses of 'Aman' crop as the finance ministry released less than one-fourth of the fund proposed for the rehabilitation scheme, official sources said.
"The finance ministry has sanctioned only Tk 70 million (seven crores) for the rehabilitation scheme against the ministry of agriculture (MoA) proposal for Tk 320 million," a senior agriculture ministry official told the FE.
Such a poor allocation will not only force the authorities to reduce the size of the financial support, but also cut the number of beneficiaries under the special rehabilitation programme, officials said
They also said the flood-affected farmers will start receiving the cash support from the government from this week as the allocated fund has already been sent to the respective district authorities for disbursement among the enlisted farmers.
A senior official said some 500,000 poor and marginal farmers who have lost their current Aman crop due to the recent floods will come under the special rehabilitation scheme.
Each of the affected farmers will receive cash support at a rate of Tk 600 for a 'bigha' of flood-affected Aman cultivated land, he mentioned, adding that a victim would get the support up to Tk 1500 for maximum 2.5 bighas of crop losses.
The fund will be distributed among the affected farmers following lists prepared in the flood-hit districts by the Department of Agriculture Extension DEA with the help of local people's representatives, officials said.
Directed by the agriculture ministry, the DAE earlier submitted their field-level assessment reports on flood-hit areas and the extent of damages, and also prepared the lists of actual affected farmers.
According to the DAE's assessment reports, the latest flashfloods inundated planted Aman crop on nearly 166,000 hectares of lands in 20 districts of the country.
Agri-officials also said planted crops in most of the flood-affected areas have totally been damaged due to the flooding.
Most of the affected farmers could not get any chance to re-plant as the cropping season ended before the floodwaters receded, agri-officials said.
Farmers in some affected areas tried in vain to go for re-plantation of local varieties of crops but could not do so mainly due to paucity of seedlings, they mentioned.
The government earlier earmarked over 5.82 million hectares of land to be brought under Aman plantation this year with the total production estimated at 13.7 million tonnes, officials said.
"The latest flood has certainly dealt a blow to the achievement of the country's overall Aman cultivation target," an agri-official said, adding that the extent of the crop losses caused by the floods was not yet assessed.
Terming the Aman a usually 'flood-prone' crop, the seasonal calamity often takes huge tolls on production of the country's second largest cereal crop.
Last year, the country's Aman output fell to about 9.6 million tonnes against the target of 13 million tonnes due to successive floods followed by the cyclone 'Sidr', which devastated the country's southwestern coastal regions in November 15 last.