Disaster crop damage compensation approved

The government approved an allocation of funds to provide compensation of Rs. 200,000 per hectare for vegetable farmlands and Rs. 150,000 per hectare for other crops damaged by Cyclone Ditwa, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture Namal Karunaratne.

The Deputy Minister pointed out that steps will be taken to provide all relevant compensation payments to the farmers before the end of this month.

The impact of Cyclone Ditwa caused severe damage to the Northern, Eastern, and North Central provinces, with over 108,000 hectares of paddy fields experiencing total damage, and more than 6,000 hectares of vegetable and other farmlands suffering heavy damage.

Due to the torrential rain in the Ampara district from the cyclone’s impact, large areas of paddy fields in the Dehiattakandiya area were destroyed.

The destroyed cultivation includes rice seedlings that were only about 14 days old.

Although the Sri Lankan Army clears obstructed canal systems in some paddy fields, farmers are requesting a program to quickly remove deposited sand.

The farmers say that cultivating for the Maha season will be extremely difficult because they lack the financial capacity to purchase seed paddy again.