State, national disaster fund norms to be reviewed every April

The Home Ministry has asked the States to keep 10 per cent of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) reserved for local disasters such as heavy rain. In a letter to the States, the ministry said heavy rains should be considered at par with national disasters and fund amount be used for distressed farmers.

The norms for SDRF and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) will be automatically reviewed annually (every April) based on WPI-inflation numbers, an official statement said.

The revised NDRF/SDRF norms, issued on April 1, were facilitated to carry out the increased compensation measures announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for farmers affected by unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms through most of March. Farmers will now be able to avail of input subsidy if 33 per cent of their crop was damaged from 50 per cent earlier. The quantum of financial assistance was also hiked by 50 per cent.

The enhanced input subsidy norms under the NDRF, in case of agriculture and horticulture crops and annual plantation crops, has been hiked to ₹6,800/hectare from ₹4,500/hectare in rain-fed areas and restricted to sown areas. For irrigated areas, it has been hiked from ₹9,000/hectare to ₹13,500 hectare.

For perennial crops, input subsidy has been hiked to ₹18,000/hectare from ₹12,000/hectare, while for those engaged in sericulture, it has risen from ₹3,200-4,000/hectare to ₹4,800-6,000/hectare. The statement also pointed out measures undertaken to alleviate the distress of farmers from “the vagaries of nature” include the assistance for land and other losses due to silting of agri-land being raised to ₹12,200/hectare from ₹8,100/hectare. “In case of loss of substantial portion of land due to land slide, avalanche, change of course of rivers, the existing level of financial assistance has been hiked from ₹25,000/hectare to ₹37,500/hectare for small and marginal farmers,” the statement added.

The Centre has also asked State Level Bankers’ Committees to facilitate timely restructuring of crop loans whereby the repayment period will be extended. The Agriculture Ministry has also directed the State Governments to ensure faster processing of claims under the agriculture insurance schemes.

Under the Modified National Insurance Scheme, farmers are eligible to get claims up to 25 per cent without waiting for the result of crop cutting experiments. As per the Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme, farmers are eligible to receive claims within 45 days from the end of the risk period.

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has also written to States such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal to purchase and maintain stocks of onions and potatoes under the Market Intervention Scheme to contain prices.