By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 30: The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has made public the criteria of providing relief to the farmers whose paddy crops were damaged by unseasonal rains in late October.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on November 18 had approved the criteria.

The Ministry has said that the criteria have been formulated as it is necessary to make the relief process provided by the government to the farmers affected by floods and landslides due to unseasonal rains simple, transparent and systematic.
According to spokesperson of the Ministry Prakash Kumar Sanjel, all affected farmers will start getting relief within a month by completing all procedures maintained in the criteria.
“It will take at least a month to collect actual losses of paddy and publish the names of farmers and amount they will get as relief based on their losses. There is a space for farmers to put their grievances if they are not satisfied with the details published by the concerned authority,” he said.

The local levels should prepare the actual data of the damages caused to paddy crop at the local level on the basis of the details collected by the District Administration Office, District Police Office, local levels or other bodies before the criteria come into effect.
The Ministry of Finance will release funds to the district treasury controller offices for the distribution of relief to the farmers after finalising all procedures based on the criteria, he said.
According to the criteria, small farmers who have suffered complete loss of paddy will be given 65 per cent of the production cost, medium range farmers 30 per cent of production cost and large farmers 20 per cent of production cost.

Similarly, large, medium or small farmers whose paddy was partially damaged will get 20 per cent of production cost.
A farmer will get a maximum of Rs. 55,000 as relief, the ministry said.
If more than one farmer had cultivated paddy jointly, the relief amount will be provided to one farmer based on their recommendation as per the criteria.

It has been said that if the damaged paddy crop is insured, no relief will be given for the damage caused to such paddy crop.
Similarly, those who have already received relief from the federal government, provincial government or local level government for the damage caused to the paddy crop due to unseasonal rains will not be given the relief.

In case the amount of relief or compensation received from the provincial government or local level is less than the relief amount provided according to this criterion, the additional amount will be provided.
In order to get relief, if the farmer owns the tilled land, a copy of the land ownership certificate with lot number and area and a copy of the land owner certificate and the agreement between the landowner and the farmer, or the paper, details of the damage should be submitted.

The certificate of citizenship and bank account details should be submitted for relief.
The relief amount will be deposited to the bank account of farmers where the concerned authorities will facilitate opening the bank account of farmers in this regard.

The monitoring committee will be formed to make the relief distribution effective and transparent and address the grievances, if any, during the distribution.
The committee will also facilitate the opening of bank accounts of farmers at zero balance, said the criteria.
The criteria will be effective till July 16, 2022.