Vijayawada, November 16, 2021: Andhra Pradesh (AP) chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday disbursed Rs 22 crore into the bank accounts of 34,586 farmers to compensate for the crop loss due to cyclone Gulab in September.
“Gulab is a very unique cyclone as it made landfall in AP, crossed large parts of India, and moved out into the Arabian Sea over Maharashtra, and intensified again. The bulk of the losses is estimated from agriculture. Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts in Andhra Pradesh faced maximum winds due to Gulab while East Godavari, West Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, Prakasam, Srikakulam, and Visakhapatnam districts in Andhra Pradesh saw floods,” the statement read.
When Cyclone Gulab had hit, the crops to be cultivated were in their final stages in Andhra Pradesh. Due to heavy rain, standing crops fell. There was a lot of water stagnation because of which other than paddy, all crops, including vegetables that were in flowering stages, were damaged according to the reports published in indiatoday.in.
“Some of the measures taken by the Andhra Pradesh government to provide immediate relief to the farmers affected by recent rains and floods are the disbursal of Crop Loss Compensation (Input subsidy) for actual cultivators based on e-crop registration, most transparently, after due display of the list of beneficiaries in Village Secretariats. They Constituted teams to assess the crop loss incurred due to heavy rains in the last two weeks,” the statement read.
The government also supplied seeds to farmers at subsidised rates.
When Cyclone Nivar hit Andhra Pradesh in 2020, farmers had experienced a 12.01 lakhs crop loss in acres, to compensate for that, the Andhra Pradesh government disbursed Rs 654.99 crores to 8.34 lakh farmers. Ever since the new goverment came to power, a total of Rs. 1,071 crore has been distributed towards crop loss compensation to aid 13.96 lakh farmers.
