The Gujarat government has armed itself with a wishlist of several sops to seek from the Centre for the state farmers. The current dry spell is threatening to damage standing kharif crops in at least 14 of the states 26 districts. Gujarat Agriculture Minister Dilip Sanghani is leaving for New Delhi on Friday to attend a meeting of agriculture ministers of all the states convened by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to review the drought-like situation in different parts of the country. Sanghani told mediapersons here on Thursday that he would urge the Centre to provide power subsidy to Gujarat farmers,for the state government would have to shoulder an additional burden of Rs 1,704 crore to meet the demand of 5,939 crore million units of electricity in the agriculture sector between August 2009 and March 2010. I will press for this demand at the Delhi meet,as 18 lakh hectares of farmland depends on lift irrigation that requires huge supply of power, he said. The minister said he would also urge the Centre to simplify the procedure under the crop insurance scheme in view of the prevailing situation. Usually,the assistance being extended to aggrieved farmers under the crop insurance scheme is calculated on the basis of the last 10 kharif seasons. But,the Centre should liberalise this criterion and direct the insurance authorities concerned to make it just one year as the basis for crop damage claims in view of the current drought-like situation,he said. Sanghani will also press for removal of the 100-day ceiling with respect to providing employment to the poor,mainly the farm labourers,under the NREG scheme keeping in mind the long dry spell in Gujarat. Moreover,he will request the Centre to convert the loan being provided to farmers for the kharif crops into the term-loan,and extend this facility till the rabi season. The minister said sowing has been done over 82.48 lakh hectares of land this kharif season across Gujarat. If the dry spell continues for another week or so,some crops like bajri,maize,groundnut and pulses would be badly damaged. He,however,maintained that the government could not declare now some rain deficit parts of the state as drought or semi-drought-hit,as monsoon season is still on in the state.
