Guwahati: Five months after Manipur descended into ethnic conflict, the state agriculture department has come up with a crop compensation package of Rs 38.06 crore for farmers affected by the ethnic violence.
The package, funded wholly by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), will cover over 5,127 hectares of severely-affected agricultural areas identified in June 2023.
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The estimated loss for over 5,127 hectares is calculated as Rs 38.06 crore using average crop yield for the affected districts for the last three years and areas where cultivation may not be possible.
The final numbers of farmers to be compensated will be subjected to verification of the affected farmers being conducted by the Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts.
An independent survey conducted by the Loumee Shinmee Apunba Lup (LOUSAL), a farmers’ body, claimed that a total area of around 9,719 hectares of agricultural fields in the valley could be facing crop failure as farmers are scared of going into their paddy fields due to sporadic firing by the armed miscreants from the lower foothills.
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Agriculture Commissioner of Manipur, RK Dinesh Singh while commending LOUSAL for conducting an independent survey and for serving as a bridge between the farmers and the department maintained that the agriculture department in order to mitigate the current crisis has already swung into action and approached the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for funding a crop compensation package as relief for the affected farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by the ethnic violence.
“The department has proposed to the MHA for a package of Rs 38.06 crore as crop compensation. The good news is that the proposal has been accepted by the ministry. Our priority is to speed up the process of releasing the relief package to the affected farmers as soon as possible, at least by the month of November,” Singh said.
It is estimated that the total income loss for the state in the agricultural sector this year could be around Rs 226.50 crore.
Of this, the highest loss will be in rice production to the tune of Rs 211.41 crore which accounts for 93.36 per cent of the total agriculture and allied activities followed by livestock farming.
Of the five crisis-hit valley districts; Bishnupur, Imphal East, Imphal West, Kakching and Thoubal, Bishnupur district is the worst-affected in terms of agricultural land area comprising 5,288 hectares, constituting 54.4 per cent of the total land area of 9,718 hectares, followed by Imphal East with 1,770 hectares and Imphal West respectively.
Besides the current violence, inadequate rainfall has also worsened the crisis and Imphal East district is the worst-hit, which has around 21,630 hectares of arable land, the second largest in the valley.
The agriculture department has admitted that water scarcity is a major concern and that it is trying to increase the area of irrigated land by introducing tube wells and water ponds.
It has also enhanced its scheme funds by Rs 70 crore through the Central ministry. As a short-term plan, alternative Rabi crops would also be introduced to the farmers soon.