KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 7
The Government of Nepal has set criteria for providing relief to farmers affected by unseasonal rain-induced natural disasters, such as floods, landslides, and inundation.
According to the criteria posted on the website of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration today, "The government shall provide relief to farmers who suffer loss or paddy damage on the basis of this in conformance with the average production cost."
The smallholder farmers suffering full damage to paddy shall be entitled to 65 per cent of production cost.
Similarly, medium and large farmers having suffered full damage shall get 30 per cent and 20 per cent of production cost, respectively. However, the farmers of all categories who suffer partial loss or damage shall be provided with only 20 per cent of production cost.
As per the norm, persons holding more than three bigha of land are categorised as large farmers. Those holding more than 10 katthas, but not exceeding three bigha of land are medium farmers. Persons who own less than 10 kattha of land are referred to as smallholder farmers.
As per the norm, the amount in relief to be provided to farmers affected by unseasonal rainfall shall be no more than Rs 55,000. "If more than one farmer has cultivated crops jointly, the relief shall be provided to any of them on the basis of mutual consensus," it reads.
Those cultivating paddy crops in government or public land by encroaching upon it shall not be eligible to enjoy the relief.
Prior to providing the relief, the local levels concerned shall collect wardwise details of the loss or damage to paddy and issue a public notice requesting the affected farmers to submit necessary documents, including a copy of land ownership certificate, citizenship certificate, bank account and details of damage, among others.
Anyone who is not satisfied with the damage assessment carried out by the local level may file a complaint to the ward office concerned for fixation of the relief amount. "The local level shall send ward-wise updated details of damage to a four-member recommendation committee led by chief or deputy chief of the local government," the norm says.
The recommendation committee shall make recommendation to a four-member relief amount fixation committee headed by Chief District Officer. After the relief amount is fixed, the District Disaster Management Committee shall send the details of beneficiaries to the banks for payment of the amount to them.
According to statistics at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, paddy crops on more than 153,000 hectares were fully or partially damaged due to unseasonal rainfall that lashed the country, mainly Sudurpaschim Province, in mid-October.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 8, 2021 of The Himalayan Times.
