Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in Rajya Sabha on Friday mentioned that during the beginning of this year and last year, locust attack was reported in some districts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Rajasthan Government has reported that a total area of 1,79,584 hectares of 8 districts of the state was affected by locust attack during 2019-20.
The state government of Gujarat has reported that crop loss due to locust attack was observed in a total area of 19,313 hectares of two districts of the state during the year 2019-20.
During 2020-21, the locust incursions were reported in 10 States of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana and Uttarakhand, where operations were undertaken in coordination with state governments for locust control. State Governments of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Bihar have reported no crop losses in their States.
Initially, during May-June 2020, Government of Rajasthan reported crop damage of 33% and more due to locust attack in 2235 hectare area in Bikaner, 140 hectare in Hanumangarh and 1027 hectare area in Sri Ganganagar; but now, as per the revised report, it has been stated that earlier submitted data was related to the initial stage of crop sown in Kharif season and this area of crop loss has been re-sown by farmers.
State Governments of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have reported crop damage of less than 33% in 6520 ha, 4400 ha, 806 ha, 488 ha and 267 ha respectively due to locust attack this year.
For 2019-20, the State Government of Rajasthan has reported that relief of Rs. 132.54 crores have been paid to 79,922 farmers due to locust attack from State Disaster Response Fund in the form of agriculture input subsidy.
State Government of Gujarat has reported that a total amount of approximately Rs. 18.74 crore has been paid to 9137 farmers during 2019-20 as agricultural input subsidy from the State Disaster Response Fund.
For the financial year 2020-21, till now no State Government has reported distribution of relief to the farmers affected by locust attack for 2020-21. However, the State Government of Rajasthan has informed that Girdawari/ survey work is underway for estimation of crop losses due to attack of locusts.
The yield losses will be assessed through crop cutting experiments and compensation will be paid to all registered farmers as per provisions of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
