A group of farmers of Jammu division met with Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Farooq Khan, today at Civil Secretariat regarding the issue of crop losses due to recent rains and hailstorm in parts of Jammu division. Those who were present on the occasion included Director AP & FW, Jammu, K K Sharma, Director Horticulture Jammu, Ram Sevak, Special Secretary AP & FWD, T K Bhat, Additional Secretary, Babu Ram Bhagat besides other senior officers.Advisor had detailed information regarding damage to standing as well as harvested Paddy crop in the region. He was apprised that Paddy crop has suffered major loss as it was in harvesting stage and being grown on extremely vast areas of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.He had an elaborate interaction with the farmers who gave a detailed account of extensive damage to Paddy crop due to recent rains, hailstorm and stagnation of rain water in fields, lodging of crops and further anticipated losses to Rabi crops due to excessive moisture in soil leading to delayed sowing. Farmers apprised him that immense losses have occurred to agricultural crops like Paddy, Vegetables, Potato, Fodder, Oil Seeds and appealed for providing adequate compensation to those who suffered losses due to incessant rains.Advisor asked the officers to assess realistic impact of inclement weather conditions on agriculture sector and extend technical hand to farmers in order to tackle the situation emerged out of the prevailing scenario by devising a strategy for upcoming Rabi season to compensate crop losses to some extent. Advisor issued directions to the field functionaries of Agriculture Department to conduct joint survey along with revenue officials by organizing meetings with the farmers of all villages to get and prepare detailed digitalized report of crop damages at the earliest. He enjoined upon the insurance companies to immediately settle the claims of crops under PM Fasal Bima Yojna.Regarding Paddy straw problem, he recommended popularization of the use of decomposer to dispose of logged paddy straw. He said that government is working on provision of subsidy on seed and fertilizers for next crop to facilitate the farmers. He also instructed the Department to plan for opening of maize procurement mandies in maize growing districts as soon as possible.The deputation of farmers, which was led by Daljit Singh, Former Vice Chairman, JK Kisan Advisory Board, comprised of prominent farmers and growers including Kulbhushan Khajuria, Sat Paul Charak, Basant Sani, Raghunandan Khajuria, Ranjit Singh, Ashwani Sharma, Dev Raj and others.
