Unseasonal rains cost Rs 3,312 cr to state agriculture

Unseasonal rains in the state of Gujarat during September - November, 2010 has cost the state agriculture sector Rs 3,312 crore with key cash crops including groundnut, cotton, castor seed and pulses taking a major blow among other agriculture commodities.

The state minister for agriculture, Dilip Sanghani on Thursday informed that as of December 31, 2010 the total damage to the state agriculture sector was estimated at around Rs 3,312.82 crore. "We have made a representation to the union government on January 19, 2011 to provide a relief for the damages due to the unseasonal rains witnessed during the year 2010," the minister said in a written reply to a question in the the state assembly on Thursday.

The minister further informed that the rains during the month of November, 2010 had damaged the crops of cotton, chana (chick pea), jowar and some of the horticulture crop cultivated in the Surendranagar district. The district alone saw an estimated damage worth Rs 382.15 crore.

Among oilseeds, castor and soybeans were badly affected. The state tops in castor production in India. This year, the castor production was estimated at around 8.60 lakh tonnes up 17 per cent over previous year. The crop was sown on 4.83 lakh hectares in the state.

Meanwhile, the Rapeseed-Mustard production in Gujarat was expected to rise by 15,000 tonnes during the current rabi season 2010-11 as the area under the crop also rose by 4 per cent at 216,700 hectares over last year. A survey by Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) had estimated the state's rapeseed production at 3.30 lakh tonnes against 3.15 lakh tonnes registered in 2009-10.

The Banaskantha district, which is among the worst affected due to unseasonal rains, had seen a growth of 22 per cent in the area under rapeseed cultivation against to 123,100 hectares for the current season against 101,000 hectare in 2009-10.

Other badly affected districts included Kutch, Sabarkantha, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar and Rajkot. The state assembly was informed that over 16,000 hectares of crop area was affected due to the ill-timed rains covering as many as 21 districts across the state.

The minister further noted that so far the central government had not responded to the representations made by the state government to give relief for the damage.