West Bengal's agriculture department will give rice and other crop seed for the boro season to farmers in Purba Medinipur district, India, whose fields were damaged by rain and storms from successive depressions in September and October. The district administration will begin collecting affected farmers' documents, Anandabazar Patrika reports.
Most farmland in the district's 25 blocks was damaged; bigha after bigha of aman rice went under water and rotted, and flower crops were lost as plants and blooms decayed. According to the district administration, the district magistrate has already declared 19 blocks affected and sent the list to Nabanna, the state secretariat. In all, farmland in 2,165 mouzas was damaged.
The list covers 298 mouzas in Nandakumar, Chandipur and Moyna blocks of Tamluk subdivision; 354 in Mahishadal, Sutahata, Haldia and Nandigram I and II in Haldia subdivision; 790 in Deshapran, Ramnagar I and II, Khejuri I, Bhagabanpur II and Contai III in Contai subdivision; and 723 in Bhagabanpur I, Egra I and II and Patashpur I and II in Egra subdivision.
The list was drawn up from satellite images and field surveys. The district agriculture department has now been told to identify the individual farmers affected, and assistant directors of agriculture in each block have been asked to collect farmers' documents and details.
A district agriculture official said the list of affected farmers will be drawn up after the festival holidays, and seed is being given to cut the cost of replanting.
Photo (illustrative): flooded paddy fields in Bankura, West Bengal, in the monsoon. Photo: Fjdjkb / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Source: Anandabazar
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