State seeks funds from Centre for 27,000 farmers

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has sought financial assistance from the Centre for compensating around 27,000 farmers of Nadia and Murshidabad districts whose crops have been damaged due to Wheat Blast disease barely a month back. Around 8,000 hectares of wheat in the two districts had to be burnt to prevent the disease from spreading.

“A survey will be done to ascertain the condition of the soil where the crops were burnt. Farmers of these plots will not be able to cultivate anything on their plots of land in the next season. Cultivation can be resumed only after proper soil treatment is done for the plots,” a senior official of the agriculture department said.

The state agriculture department has urged the Central agriculture ministry to provide financial assistance to the farmers. “We have asked them to decide the amount of financial assistance keeping in mind the minimum support price of wheat that is `1,625 per quintal,” the official added.

In Murshidabad, Wheat Blast had spread from Jalangi to Domkal, Raninagar-I, Nawda and Hariharpara blocks and in Nadia it spread in several blocks namely Tehatta I & II, Karimpur I & II and Chhapra.

The disease caused by the fungus magnaporthe oryzae, had entered Asia for the first time in 2016. In Bangladesh, crops of over 20,000 hectres in six districts had to be burnt. The state government believes that the disease had come to Bengal from Bangladesh.

The government had also urged the BSF to make necessary arrangements to prevent entry of wheat seeds from Bangladesh.