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On ground study: Members of the Central drought assessment team looking at the groundnut crop which has been affected due to moisture stress in Shivapur village in Hospet taluk during their visit on Monday.

Our Bureaus

Bangalore/Bellary Aug. 24 A Central team consisting of senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and Agriculture which visited the drought-affected districts of Bellary and Bidar on Monday said the crop damage was extensive.

The Central team is on a two-day visit to districts such as Bidar, Gulbarga, Tumkur and Kolar to assess the impact of the drought on crops and water availability.

“The crop damage has been extensive,” the Finance Ministry official, Mr A.K.Raina, told reporters at Kottur in Bellary district, referring to the observations during their field visits.

“We, along with the members of the two other teams, touring Gulbarga and Bidar and Tumkur and Kolar, will sit together in Bangalore on August 26 to discuss about their observations and prepare a comprehensive report of the prevailing situation here and submit a report to the Union Government covering all aspects as per the norms and guidelines of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF),” Mr Raina said.

The State Government has declared as many as 86 taluks in over 20 districts, including Bellary, Koppal, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Bangalore Rural, Kolar, Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Ramanagar, as drought-hit.

“I have incurred an expenditure of about Rs 4,000 an acre on my maize crop and I don’t get anything in return. I will have to wait for the next kharif to raise another crop,” Danappa, a small farmer with six acres in Shivapur village in Kudligi taluk in Bellary district told the Central team.

Other farmers observed that the standing crops could not be used as fodder.

“Receiving rain now will hardly help the crops such as jowar, maize, bajra, sesame, sunflower, niger and groundnut, to survive and get any yield,” they added.

Karnataka has recently sought an assistance of Rs 395 crore under the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) to counter the impact deficit rains in the past two months. The scarcity in rains, estimated to be around 28 per cent, across the State has affected kharif sowing of crops such as pulses, groundnut, soyabean, sugarcane and coarse cereals.

“We were taken round the areas where the crop damage was extensive and also to some other areas where the drinking water projects were taken up and the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and have noted down all aspects,” Mr Raina said.

According to the data from the State Agriculture Department, the kharif sowing is complete 54.80 lakh hectares of the targeted 72 lakh hectares.

More Stories on : Natural Calamities | Karnataka

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