Govt takes rehab scheme to help farmers recoup Aman losses
Friday, 19 September 2008
FE Report
The government has initiated a move to launch a special rehabilitation programme for helping the affected farmers recoup their losses of 'Aman' crop caused by the ongoing flooding.
"The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has already decided, in principle, to launch a rehabilitation scheme for the farmers who have lost their planted 'Aman' crop due to sudden onrush of floodwaters," a senior official said.
The ministry has asked the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to make field-level assessment of the actual flood-hit areas and the extent of damages, and also to prepare the lists of affected farmers to pave the way for launching the rehabilitation programme, said the official.
According to officials, the DAE has to place its assessment reports to the ministry within a week.
"After receiving the final field-level assessment reports from the DAE, the MoA will come up with a rehabilitation programme for the flood-affected farmers," a senior MoA official said.
Another MoA official indicated that under the proposed rehabilitation scheme, the flood-hit farmers are expected to get supports including seeds for growing alternative crops like vegetables and fertilisers or other cash support.
Referring to initial estimates, the official said the latest flash floods inundated planted Aman crop on nearly 166,000 hectares of land in 20 districts of the country.
Although the flood-waters have started receding from different areas, there is little possibility of survival of major portion of the affected crops, agriculture officials said.
Farmers in some affected areas are, however, trying to go for re-plantation of local varieties of crops but they have to face a serious crisis of seedlings, they mentioned.
The government earlier earmarked over 5.82 million hectares of land to come under Aman plantation this year with fixation of rice output at 13.7 million tonnes, officials said.
They also said the current floods would certainly create an adverse impact on the overall Aman output this season.
The country's Aman output fell to about 9.6 million tonnes last year against the target of 13 million tonnes due to successive floods followed by a super cyclone 'Sidr', which wrecked the country's southwestern coastal regions of November 15 last.
The government has initiated a move to launch a special rehabilitation programme for helping the affected farmers recoup their losses of 'Aman' crop caused by the ongoing flooding.
"The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has already decided, in principle, to launch a rehabilitation scheme for the farmers who have lost their planted 'Aman' crop due to sudden onrush of floodwaters," a senior official said.
The ministry has asked the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) to make field-level assessment of the actual flood-hit areas and the extent of damages, and also to prepare the lists of affected farmers to pave the way for launching the rehabilitation programme, said the official.
According to officials, the DAE has to place its assessment reports to the ministry within a week.
"After receiving the final field-level assessment reports from the DAE, the MoA will come up with a rehabilitation programme for the flood-affected farmers," a senior MoA official said.
Another MoA official indicated that under the proposed rehabilitation scheme, the flood-hit farmers are expected to get supports including seeds for growing alternative crops like vegetables and fertilisers or other cash support.
Referring to initial estimates, the official said the latest flash floods inundated planted Aman crop on nearly 166,000 hectares of land in 20 districts of the country.
Although the flood-waters have started receding from different areas, there is little possibility of survival of major portion of the affected crops, agriculture officials said.
Farmers in some affected areas are, however, trying to go for re-plantation of local varieties of crops but they have to face a serious crisis of seedlings, they mentioned.
The government earlier earmarked over 5.82 million hectares of land to come under Aman plantation this year with fixation of rice output at 13.7 million tonnes, officials said.
They also said the current floods would certainly create an adverse impact on the overall Aman output this season.
The country's Aman output fell to about 9.6 million tonnes last year against the target of 13 million tonnes due to successive floods followed by a super cyclone 'Sidr', which wrecked the country's southwestern coastal regions of November 15 last.