J&K government to provide seeds, fertilisers to flood-hit farmers

SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government will provide seeds, fertilisers and pesticides to farmers whose crops have been damaged by recent floods in the state.

"The state government has decided to provide relief of Rs 450 per kanal for irrigated land and Rs 225 for non-irrigated (rain-fed) land as a cost of seeds, fertilisers and pesticides to those farmers whose crops were damaged in recent devastating floods in the state," Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir said.

Mir chaired a high-level meeting of officers convened yesterday to take stock of the damages caused to the crops and vegetables in the recent floods.

The minister said that the amount will be provided out of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and would be disbursed to the farmers through the concerned Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts after verifying the facts from Revenue and Agriculture Departments.

The minister was informed that standing crops spread over 3.50 lakh hectares were damaged in the recent floods.

The minister said a comprehensive proposal for Rs 217 crore as relief package has been formulated and submitted to the Centre for funding.

The amount would be provided to those farmers whose crops were damaged in the flood, incessant rains and cold shock as well as diseases.

The minister was also informed that the Department of Agriculture will provide 2,175.35 tonnes of various kinds of seeds to the farmers for the upcoming Rabbi season while there is a requirement of 94,650 metric tonnes of different kinds of fertilisers in the Kashmir valley.