Kadapa: The farmers in Kadapa district are waiting to get Rs 155.73 cr which is the pending amount of the input subsidy. Since the last five years the government has kept the input subsidy amount to farmers who have lost their crops, pending. When the Kharif started this year; no farmer had money to invest. Everybody has been waiting for the the pending input subsidy amount to be transferred to them.
Recently Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has announced that the pending input subsidy amount will be directly paid into the farmers bank accounts. Since 2015, the unseasonal heavy rains have ruined the crops in the district. The agriculture officers made estimates of the damaged crops and send proposals for input subsidy. A total of 1,51,380 farmers are there in the district and waiting for the input subsidy. If the government clears the pending amount, farmers will get the money to invest in this kharif crop.
The officers made a statement that crops in 1,48,071 hectares were damaged in May 2015 and November 2015. Again both Kharif and Rabi were destroyed in 2018-19. Unseasonal heavy rains in 2015 May damaged the crop in 2019 hectares, belonging to 272 farmers of five mandals in the district.
The officers had estimated an input subsidy loss of Rs 30 lakhs, and had sent the proposals to the government. In the same year, November 2015, heavy rains damaged crops in 39,660.46 hectares in 44 mandals that belonged to 40,815 farmers. The input subsidy loss was estimated at about Rs 44.58 cr.
Over 22 mandals in the district were affected because of lack of sufficient rains in 2018 Kharif; 11191.31 hectares' extent of crops belonging to 21,540 farmers was damaged and the officers made estimates for input subsidy for Rs 15.58 cr.
The 2018-19 Rabi season was also affected due to lack of rains in 32 mandals. The total of 97011.14 hectares extent of damaged crops belonged to 88,753 farmers. The loss was estimated and proposal sent for Rs 95.26 cr. input subsidy. The total input subsidy amount was Rs 155.73 cr till 2015 and this is pending with the government.
The farmers led several agitations protesting this but the previous government did not respond and sanction the amounts. The former legislatures and the leaders also made so many representations to the concerned higher authorities. But recently the new CM, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy has assured the farmers that the input subsidy amount will be transferred to their accounts before the kharif season starts.
