Imphal, October 21 2010: Agriculture Department has estimated that standing crops in 20,081.10 hectares have been damaged in the recent flash floods in the state.

This will affect the targeted rice production of the state.

An official source in the state agriculture department said that the department had compiled a report of the standing crops damaged by the floods in the first week of the current month.

As per the report, the damaged rice crop has been estimated at 20,081.10 hectares.

This is out of the total of 1.95 lakh hectares of paddy fields in the state.

Out of the total of the standing crops damaged, 18,189 hectares were in the valley areas while the rest (1892.10 hectares) were in the hill areas.As a result of this, the targeted rice production will be affected.

The state had targeted production of six lakh metric tonnes of rice this year.

Mention may be made that last year also the state could not achieve the targeted rice production due to drought and consequently a scarcity of rice was faced by the state.

This report was compiled after officials of the agriculture department conducted a joint field survey with the Revenue Department in the last few days after the flood situation had improved.

As per the report, Imphal east district recorded the highest damage.

Out of total paddy fields of 745.30 hectares in the district, the flood damaged around 6898 hectares.

For the hill districts, where 745.30 hectares of paddy fields were damaged, Chandel district was the worst affected.

Not only the paddy fields, the floods also damaged potato and pea fields to the extent of 78 hectares, the report said.

The district-wise reports of damaged crops was recorded as Imphal east (6898 hectares) Imphal west (4018 hectares), Bishnupur (2471 hectares), Thoubal (5106 hectares), Senapati (522.50 hectares), Tamenglong (158.50), Churachandpur (335.50 hectares), Chandel (745.30 hectares) and Ukhrul (130 hectares).

When asked about plans to be taken up by the agriculture department to cope with the damages, officials of the department said that the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme from which farmers could get a return of upto Rs 30,000 for damage of crops by natural calamities has been introduced in the state too.

Farmers enrolled under the scheme will get the said amount.

Unfortunately due to strong interference from an underground group demanding Rs 10 lakh from the funds for the scheme through the State Co-operative Bank, the bank has refused to accept the assurance amount to be deposited for the scheme for the Kharif (summer) crops.

As a result, farmers could not open bank accounts on time the MSCB.

Those farmers who could not open their accounts on time will not be able to get the benefits.

The department has started planning for distribution of rabi crops like, pea, mustard and maize seeds to the farmer so that they could raise the off season and cope up with the damage they have suffered.

This will be done after proper verification of the farmers whose fields had been affected by the floods.

The department is also considering for draining the waterlogged avable lands for an early cultivation of rabi crops, they said.

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