Loss assessments done on 79.69% of Hingoli's affected land; 2.9 lakh farmers' losses recorded

Hingoli: Assessments (panchnamas) of drought-related crop losses are under way in the district, and by Wednesday, October 7, they had been completed on 3,11,309 of the 3,90,619 hectares sown, or 79.69 per cent. Assessments had been done in 570 of the district's 715 villages and for 2,90,602 of its 3,63,990 farmer account holders, revenue department sources said.

The district recorded a rainfall deficit of 246.7 mm in the June–September monsoon. A long dry spell at a sensitive stage badly damaged soybean, cotton, tur, moong, urad, turmeric, banana and sugarcane. With trigger 1 applied on the basis of the rainfall deficit, drought has been declared in all five talukas, and the assessments are being carried out to pay farmers aid.

The revenue and agriculture departments and the zilla parishad are carrying out the assessments jointly. The area sown by taluka is: Sengaon 91,177 hectares (134 villages), Hingoli 81,805 hectares (153 villages), Vasmat 80,059 hectares (151 villages), Kalamnuri 74,597 hectares (155 villages) and Aundha Nagnath 62,980 hectares (122 villages).

Source: Agrowon