Chandigarh, April 5 Farmers and opposition leaders in Punjab on Sunday sought compensation for crops damaged in rain and hailstorms at various places, including Amritsar, Bathinda, Muktsar, Hoshiarpur, Tarn Taran and Fatehgarh Sahib.
They urged the state government to immediately order crop loss assessment in the affected districts and award compensation.
Pointing out that the wheat crop was flattened and maize was also affected in a village in Amritsar's Majithia, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said that no official has yet visited to make an assessment of the loss.
He urged the Centre and the AAP-led state government to order 'girdawari' (crop loss assessment) as soon as possible.
"We demand a compensation of Rs 70,000 per acre for the loss of wheat crop. Compensation should also be announced for the damage to vegetables," Pandher said.
The inclement weather caused heavy damage to crops in Nagkalan and Daddian villages in Majitha. "We suffered 100 per cent crop loss," said a farmer.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that crops on more than 1,000 acres were destroyed by adverse weather in Daddian, Hariyan, Supariwind and other villages adjacent to the Majitha constituency.
Wheat, maize and vegetable crops were damaged, he said, demanding that the state government immediately conduct a 'girdawari' and provide a compensation of Rs 50,000 per acre.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa wrote to Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, demanding a relief package for the affected farmers.
In his communication, Randhawa said that over the last week from March 30, a series of active western disturbances, accompanied by cyclonic circulation, has unleashed unseasonal rain, strong winds and repeated hailstorms across several places, including Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Ludhiana, Barnala, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Hoshiarpur, and Gurdaspur.
The India Meteorological department has issued an orange alert for further adverse weather on April 6 and 7, signalling that the damage is not yet complete, Randhawa wrote.
He said wheat crop was at the critical pre-harvest and harvest-ready stage when procurement commenced on April 1, and the weather turned adverse.
"Hailstorms and high-velocity winds have flattened standing wheat across hundreds of villages in the Malwa belt, with field reports indicating 30 to 70 per cent crop loss in the worst-affected patches ...
"Punjab's Agriculture Minister has personally toured affected villages in Muktsar district and acknowledged that the situation in several areas is grim. Farmers have still not received compensation for paddy crop losses from last year's floods," he said.
"Continuous rainfall has delayed harvesting by an estimated two weeks across large parts of the Malwa belt, pushing farmers well past the window of optimal harvest moisture. Prolonged field moisture is triggering fungal infections including black point disease and the risk of pre-harvest sprouting in vulnerable wheat varieties, which will further erode grain quality and market price," wrote Randhawa.
"Wheat already cut and lying in the field or stored in the open areas of mandis has been soaked by rainfall, compromising grain quality against the Food Corporation of India's mandated moisture specification of 12 to 14 per cent. Rejection of damaged grain at procurement centres would visit a second wave of loss upon farmers already devastated in the field," said the Gurdaspur MP.
Combine harvesters cannot be deployed on wet, waterlogged soil. Farmers are caught in a paralysing impasse: unable to harvest, unable to sell, and as set out below unable to seek insurance relief, he said.
"The farmers of Punjab are the guardians of India's food security. They are presently in acute distress, facing harvest-time losses that no post-hoc expression of sympathy can undo. I request the minister to treat this as a matter of the utmost urgency, direct an immediate damage assessment," he said.