Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, August 28 2009:
The state government has urged the Union Ministry of Agriculture to sanction Rs 20.40 crore to the state as a remedial measure to the farmers due to scarcity of monsoon rains.
The state government has declared all the nine districts of the state as 'drought-hit' a few months back.
Sources in the state's Agriculture department said, the kharif crop cultivation in the state has been badly affected this year due to abnormally low rainfall the state received since January.
The Union Agriculture Ministry has been urged to sanction Rs 20.40 crore as subsidy to the state's farmers under Calamity Relief Fund (CRF)/NCCF.
Not only there is no adequate fund in the state's CRF, the exchequer of the state is drained in acquiring 300 water pump sets, constructing 200 makeshift earthen dams, etc, the source said.
The drought-like situation in the state has affected over 1, 02,000 acres of cultivable land.
In Imphal East, 28100 acres of agriculture area has been affected while 32784.4 acres of agriculture area is affected in Imphal West.
26138 acres of agriculture area is affected in Bishnupur district while in Thoubal the affected area is put as 10402 .
In Chandel, 15662.82 acres of agriculture land has been affected by the drought-like situation.
38998.02 acres of agriculture land is affected in Churachandpur district.
In Ukhrul district, 14902.92 acres of agriculture land is affected.
33917 acres of agriculture land in Tamenglong has been affected by the drought-like situation while 20553.82 acres of agriculture area is affected in Senapati district.
Apart from these, some non-agriculture areas have also been affected.
It may be mentioned that a Central team led by Secretary of Union Agriculture Ministry, Dilip Rath had visited the state recently to asses the affect of scarce monsoons.