Agriculture Minister Assures to Compensate Tenant Farmers Hit by Floods

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Agriculture Minister Assures to Compensate Tenant Farmers Hit by Floods

October 16: Minister for Agricultural Development Ramkrishna Yadav assured Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRD Alliance) on Sunday (October 15) that tenant farmers will not be excluded from the government’s post-flood agricultural recovery aid.

The minister made such comments as THRD Alliance presented a petition entitled ‘Make tenant farmers eligible for the Nepal Government's post-flood agricultural recovery’ to the ministry.

A total of 1,100 people have signed the petition started by THRD Alliance on the web-based petition platform change.org three weeks ago. On behalf of the signatories, Praveen Kumar Yadav presented hard copies of the petition along with the names of signatories to Minister Yadav.

Upon receiving the petition, the minister endorsed its suggestions, according to THRD Alliance. Although most tenant farmers lack written agreements with their landlords, their tenancy will be verified by local elected representatives and endorsed by District Agricultural Development Office (DADO) staff, Minister Yadav reportedly told the petitioners. A press statement issued by the alliance says that the minister assured that the government aid will be deposited directly to the bank accounts of flood-hit tenant farmers.

On August 27, the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) announced Rs 1.25 billion flood recovery package. According to the government’s estimates, the flooding last August caused damages worth Rs 5.84 billion to the agricultural sector, affecting 140,646 hectares of land and severely damaging 37,757 hectares of standing crops.

Following the decision, some MoAD officials had stated that the flood victims would have to show proof of land ownership or a written tenancy agreement in order to receive compensation for crop damage. 

This would have been impossible for many tenant farmers, since most  lack any written agreement with the landowner, relying instead on informal, verbal agreements. The lack of formal documentation for tenancy might have resulted in many tenant farmers being denied compensation, reads the statement.

 

 

                  

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