Maharashtra: 85 per cent of Marathwada’s kharif crop damaged in recent heavy rain, say Officials

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Survey officials said farmers and farmer leaders in these districts have demanded that insurance companies make expeditious payments under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bimal Yojana (PMFBY), without imposing any qualifying conditions.

In Beed’s Georai taluka, where the worst destruction occurred in the last week of October, portions of farmland in the vicinity of Khalegaon, Poulachiwadi, Hiwarwadi and Chaklamba are still inundated. “We lost a harvest that was in front of our eyes,” said Manoj Shembde, a farmer who lost his soyabean crop.

“Our demand is that the administration should pay compensation and insurance companies should be directed to pay 100 per cent payouts without any conditions,” said Machhindra Kale.

Worst affected are the region’s subsistence farmers, with land holdings of barely one or two acres. Jamruddi Gulab Shaikh of Chaklamba village, whose sons are daily wage labourers in the nearby towns, said she hasn’t had a decent crop in the last four or five years. “This time our basra appeared above average and we harvested it and it was kept on the field before it could be transported. That is the night the rains started, our entire harvest was soaking wet two days later,” Jamruddi, in her sixties, told The Indian Express. She said she is illiterate and does not know how to fill out a claim for insurance, though she has paid the premium. “We literally have nothing to eat right now and no harvest and no money,” she said.

Machhindra Gawde, Georai taluka head of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, said farmers would write to taluka and district level officials demanding urgent aid and instructions to insurance companies to pay farmers’ claims without delay.

Meanwhile, rain continued over the weekend in some parts of the region. In Aurangabad, Sillod taluka received an average of 106.9 mm rain in the first three days of November, while Soegaon received 98.7 mm. In Jalna, Bhokardan taluka received an average of 81 mm in the first three days of the month. In Ambad taluka of Jalna, where there has been damage to horticulture crops, guardian minister and minister for water supply Babanrao Lonikar met nearly 200 farmers, government officials and local political activists over the weekend. “Surveys are underway everywhere. Officials promised us aid within 15 days, people are now depending on that,” said Babasaheb Jige of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, who was present at the meeting.