GOALPARA, July 13 � The recent floods have damaged crops in an approximate area of 13,266 hectares of agriculture land and affected around 50,916 farm families in the district. According to SN Deka, District Agriculture Officer (DAO) altogether 315 farming villages were affected by flood waters where extensive damages were caused to the standing crops mainly ahu (regular), jute and summer vegetables under Jaleswar, Lakhipur, Kharmuza (riverside) and Matia blocks whereas damages were reported in patches from other areas of the district with a cumulative fugure of 32,116.16 metric tonnes in terms of production loss valued at over Rs 2,650.135 lakh. Among the crops, major loss was reported under ahu (regular) paddy which was at the flowering stage and could not be harvested due to floods.
According to Rakib Ahmed, asst executive engineer (agric. mechanical) preliminary assessment report revealed that no major damages have been reported so far under agriculture infrastructure but around 9,000 diesel pump sets were submerged in the flood waters and till now, the department is assessing all the damages and the figure is likely to go up and also flood waters have accumulated sand and silt damaging an area of 200 hectares mainly on the river side. Meanwhile, under immediate relief measures 300 quintals of paddy seeds have been supplied by the Director of Agriculture for distribution to the affected farmers under disaster management and accordingly only 6000 beneficiaries will be covered under it.
Moreover, after assessing the damages due to floods, the District Agriculture department has drawn up an effective post-flood action plan to rehabilitate the affected farmers which will require an estimated amount of Rs 427.183 lakh for the total flood-affected area covering 50,916 farm families under which seeds, other farms inputs and other follow-up services will be provided to them.
