HYDERABAD
The State Government has decided to seek an assistance of ₹117.76 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) against the crop damage/loss suffered in about 1,17,757 acres in the recent cyclone Montha-induced rains and to pay it out as the input subsidy at ₹10,000 per acre to 1,22,242 farmers.
According to officials of the Agriculture department, the assessment of crop damage in cyclone Montha was completed and as per the final assessment the extent of damage was more than 33% in 1,17,757 acres, including paddy in 83,407 acres, cotton in 30,144 acres and maize in 2,097 acres. The damage was reported from 27 districts.
The assessment put the crop damage highest in Nagarkurnool district, where the damage was reported in 23,580 acres belonging to 21,408 farmers. Other districts which suffered considerable damage were Warangal (19,736 acres), Karimnagar (11,473), Hanmakonda (11,310), Jangaon (8,457), Mahabubabad (8,318), Suryapet (7,476), Siddipet (5,277), Nalgonda (5,259) and Sangareddy (4,858 acres).
Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao stated that the damage assessment report was finalised after the teams of officials visited the field and collected the details. As per the Central Government guidelines, ₹7,285 per acre is paid for sand-silting, ₹6,880 per acre for irrigated crops, ₹3,440 per acre for rain-fed crops and ₹9,106 per acre for horticulture/plantation crops under NDRF.
He pointed out that the Centre did not give any assistance against the crop damage due to floods in the past (the last couple of years). The State government had already requested the Centre to depute a team for examining the loss/damage suffered due to cyclone Montha. Despite the Centre’s action, the State government was making arrangements to pay compensation of ₹10,000 per acre as announced.
Published – November 11, 2025 08:42 pm IST
