Compensation soon for coconut growers

The state government will soon announce a financial package for farmers who have lost coconut trees owing to successive droughts, Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa informed the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

Replying to a discussion on the drought situation in the state, Thimmappa said a cabinet sub-committee will take a decision in this regard within a week. “We understand the plight of farmers and will come to their rescue. The matter will be given top priority.” 

Earlier, K M Shivalingaiah (JD-S) said one crore coconut trees in the state have either withered or have been damaged during the last three years owing to successive droughts. As many as 14 lakh coconut trees have withered in Arsikere taluk in Hassan district alone, he said and added that farmers not able to repay their loans were shifting to Bengaluru and taking up jobs as watchmen.

Thimmappa said the government would issue directions to deputy commissioners to accept applications from farmers seeking compensation for crop loss due to drought, even if their names had been left out in the list prepared by the revenue department.

Several members, cutting across party lines, said tahsildars were rejecting applications of farmers seeking crop loss compensation, saying the last date was over. “We will issue orders to accept the applications and process them,” Thimmappa said.

He said the state government was willing to waive crop loans availed by farmers from cooperative institutions if the Centre waives loans procured from nationalised banks.

He reiterated that the total crop loans availed by farmers from cooperative institutions between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017 totalled Rs 10,760 crore while loans availed from nationalised banks amounted to Rs 34,460 crore.