“Govt. was able to pay largest amount of compensation to farmers”

The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, said that the government was able to start paying the largest amount of compensation to the farmers for crop damage caused by drought and floods in the 2023 yala season within two months of crop damage.

The first ceremony for the awarding of compensation for crop damage in the 2023 yala season was held today (19) in the morning at Angunacolapalassa.

The Agricultural and Agrarian Insurance Board has decided to spend 389 million rupees from the funds of the board until the government’s financial allocations are received for this first phase.

Accordingly, 375 farmers in Hambantota district were awarded compensation by the minister. In providing these compensations, compensation will be given for the crops of paddy, chillies, potatoes, maize, soybeans and big onions. Under that, the damages caused by drought, heavy rains and wild elephants will be taken into consideration.

According to the current surveys, 65,000 acres have been damaged due to drought and 11,000 acres due to rain. Crop damage compensation is provided subject to a maximum of Rs.100,000 per hectare.

According to today’s compensation award, 360 million rupees was awarded for 13,451 acres in Hambantota Mahaweli area and 24,98,400 rupees for 89 acres in Chandrikaeva, Kolonna, Panamure, and Thibolketia agrarian Service areas.

The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera who expressed his views here –

Our farmers had to face great hardships due to the great drought that affected the 2023 yala season and the heavy rains that followed. Honorable President Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe expressed his agreement to provide some relief to the farmers even though there is an economic crisis in the country.

No action has been taken before to compensate crop damage in a short period of time. Generally, crop damage compensation is paid after about a year. But this time within two months, crop damage compensation was started.

Although the government has not yet received the necessary financial allocations to compensate for the crop damage, I advised the Agricultural and Agricultural Insurance Board to start paying the compensation by using the financial allocations.

We know that providing 100,000 rupees per hectare for crop damage may not be enough, but this time we have to pay a huge amount of compensation. We assume that this amount may be the highest amount paid for crop damage in history.

Farmers whose crops were damaged are in a difficult situation. They no longer have financial resources to spend on cultivation. Therefore, we believe that they will get some relief on the prompt payment of crop damage compensation.

Also, today we will start giving 40 liters of fuel free of charge to all farmers who have suffered crop damage. Of the 6.9 million liters of fuel given to us by the Chinese government, two million liters are left. We decided to give that stock of fuel to the farmers whose crops were damaged.

The Chairman of the Agriculture and Agrarian Insurance Board M. M. B. Weerasekera and others also participated.

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