The government has already started to compensate the farmers affected by both flash floods and drought in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces,” Agrarian Insurance Board Director General Panduka Weerasinghe said.
“Approximately 22,530 acres of agricultural fields were destroyed due to the floods and drought and farmers will receive compensation of Rs.40,000 for acre of land,” he said.
The Director General further said that the government has already allocated over Rs.400 million for this purpose and hopes to complete the compensation process by the end of February.
“Following a request made by Agriculture Minister P.Harrison to accelerate the process, around 400 Department of Agriculture and Agricultural Insurance officials were deployed to determine the number of farmers and the extent of agricultural lands affected due to the flood and drought,” he added.
Accordingly, around 8,950 acres of paddy fields in the Kilinochchi District, 2,100 acres of paddy fields in the Mullaitivu District and 1,530 acres of paddy fields in Vavuniya were completely destroyed due to the recent floods while approximately 1,200 acres of agricultural lands had been destroyed due to the drought.
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