Ryots to get Rs 200 crore before Pongal fest

COIMBATORE: An amount of Rs 200 crore — earmarked as compensation for farmers affected by cyclone Thane — will be transferred into the accounts of the beneficiaries before Pongal, Agricultural Production Commissioner Sandeep Saxena announced here on Monday.He was speaking to journalists here on the sidelines of the centennary celebrations of the Paddy Breeding Station at the Tamil Nadu  Agricultural University.“In the recent Thane cyclone, farmers belonging to nine districts including Cuddalore, Villupuram and Nagapattinam, were affected. Totally, 2.25 lakh hectare of farm land was totally damaged,” he said.“Crops like paddy, cashew, sugarcane, cotton were destroyed in this cyclone. Around three lakh farmers were affected because of this. The State government has decided to give `200 crore as compensation to these farmers. The compensation money will be directly credited to the their accounts a week before Pongal,” he added.Saxena also outlined the other relief efforts being planned for the benefit of the farmers.Explaining that a study was conducted to identify the crops that would be most suited to the cyclone-hit areas, he said, “We will be giving inputs to farmers regarding this and a direction will be given to the joint director and assistant directors of Agriculture soon for dissemination of the information.”Earlier, speaking at the inauguration of an international symposium on ‘100 years of Rice Science and Looking Beyond’ he said, “Tamil Nadu was on its way to achieve an ambitious target of 115 lakh metric tonnes of food grain production during 2011- 12. This got affected by Thane, which destroyed crops in 2.25 lakh hectares.”