Chennai: State agriculture minister R Vinoth said on Wednesday that TVK govt is closely monitoring the drought situation in the state and will take action based on a detailed assessment. Vinoth said TVK govt has chalked out 27 long term measures to boost agriculture and address problems faced by farmers.“Issues faced by farmers can’t be resolved in a day or two. They need long term programmes. Hence the govt has chalked out 27 programmes including promotion of exotic fruits,” Vinoth told the assembly.Responding to Leader of opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin, who demanded that TVK govt provide drought relief to farmers who couldn’t undertake Kuruvai farming, Vinoth cited the disaster management guideline released by Union govt in 2020 and said that if an area has to be declared as drought-affected, factors like rainfall, status of cultivated crops and damage to crops have to be taken into account.The agriculture minister further said that due to erratic rain, because of super El Nino, crops witnessed severe damage across the state. “Crops cultivated in 23,309ha were found damaged. Among them, paddy crops were damaged in 5,463ha, millets in 5,970ha, oil seeds in 8,700ha, pulses in 2,245ha, sugarcane crops in 753ha, cotton in 17ha, and horticulture crops were damaged in 161ha. The assessment would be carried out continuously and state would take steps to provide compensation under state disaster management fund,” Vinoth said.“Now the drought situation is monitored. If drought persists, govt will take action according to drought management rules,” Vinoth said.
