Parliament Question: Relief to Farmers affected by Floods

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3817 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 11TH AUGUST, 2026 RELIEF TO FARMERS AFFECTED BY FLOODS 3817. SHRI GAURAV GOGOI: Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE be pleased to state: (a) whether the Government has taken note of the damage caused to crops due to the recent floods in Assam and if so, the details thereof, district-wise; (b) the total area of agricultural land damaged, inundated or rendered uncultivable and estimated value of crops damaged due to floods in Assam during the last five years, year-wise; (c) the total number of farmers affected and the estimated financial loss suffered by them during the said period; (d) whether the Government has provided or proposes to provide compensation or financial assistance to farmers for crop losses caused by the recent floods in Assam and if so, the details thereof, including the proposed amount and the mechanism and timeline for disbursement, including through the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), wherever applicable; (e) the steps taken to ensure timely assessment of crop damage and disbursement of compensation and insurance claims to affected farmers; and (f) the steps taken to restore and protect agricultural land from recurring flood damage? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ(cid:874)ष एव ं (cid:873)कसान क(cid:227)याण रा(cid:207)य म(cid:287)ं ी (SHRI RAMNATH THAKUR) (a) to (c): The data regarding crop losses and farmers affected due to any disaster is not maintained centrally. However, as informed by the Government of Assam, the State has undertaken assessment of damage caused to standing crops due to the recent floods in Assam. Submergence of crops is reported and monitored through the Disaster Reporting and Information Management Portal (DRIMS) by the State Government.As per the DRIMS portal report on 3rd August, 2026, the crop submergence and population affected is as under: - S Name of the District Population Crop No. Affected (No) Submergence (Ha) 1. Charaideo 34050 7100 2. Biswanath 78 98.008 3. Dhimaji 8333 1108.86 4. Golaghat 10201 1331 5. Jorhat 20209 376.28 6. Lakimpur 0 670 7. Sivasagar 55200 3546 TOTAL 128071 14231.148 The State Government has informed that the year-wise details of agricultural crop area damaged due to floods in the State during the last five years is as under: - Year Crop area affected in Hectare 2021 11015.47 2022 126156 2023 18094.64 2024 40812.89 2025 7909.23 (d) & (e): As per the National Policy on Disaster Management (NPDM), the State Government is primarily responsible for providing necessary relief measures on ground level in the wake of notified calamities. The State Governments undertake relief measures in the wake of natural calamities from funds available in the form of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in accordance with the Government of India approved items and norms. Additional financial assistance, over and above SDRF, is considered from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), as per laid down procedure, in case of disaster of ‘severe nature’, which includes an assessment based on the visit of an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) and a memorandum submitted by the State Government for financial assistance from NDRF. The financial assistance provided under SDRF and NDRF is by way of relief and not for compensation of losses suffered/ claimed.The details of funds allocated and released to Assam under SDRF and NDRF during 2021-22 to 2025-26 (during 15th Finance Commission period) is available at ndmindia.mha.in. As reported by MHA, the balance available with the State in SDRF is 1851.06 crore. An allocation of Rs.4660 crore is provided for Assam for the period from 2026-27 to 2030-31 (under 16th Finance Commission). Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and weather index based Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) is being implemented by the State of Assam (since inception, i.e. Kharif 2016). The details of Claims paid, Farmer applications insured and Farmer applications paid claims in the State of Assam in last five years is as under: PMFBY & RWBCIS: Year wise Coverage and Claims Report of Assam from 2021-22 to 2025-26 as on 24.07.2026 Year No. of Farmer No. of Farmer Paid Claims to Applications Applications Paid Farmers Enrolled Claims (In Lakh) (Rs In Crore) 2021-22 9.78 2.89 256.42 2022-23 4.9 0.26 21.15 2023-24 7.94 1.07 64.71 2024-25 11.85 1.45 95.63 2025-26 14.24 0.34 29.61 Total (Assam) 48.7 6.01 467.52 Following steps have been taken by the Government of India to ensure timely settlement of claims under the scheme:  Government has undertaken development of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) as a single source of data for subsidy payment, dissemination of information, delivery of services including online enrolment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer’s details and transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer’s Bank Account. In order to rigorously monitor claim disbursal process, a dedicated module namely ‘Digiclaim Module’ has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards. It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims.  W.e.f. Kharif 2024, in case payment is not made timely by Insurance Company, penalty of 12% is auto-calculated and levied through NCIP.  Delinking of Central Government share of premium subsidy from that of State Governments has been implemented so that farmers can get proportionate claims relating to the Central Government share.  12% penalty is also levied from Kharif 2025 on State Government for delay in release of State share of subsidy.  Opening of ESCROW Account by the State Government concerned for deposit of their premium share in advance as per provisions of the scheme has been made mandatory w.e.f. Kharif 2025 season for bringing financial discipline.  Also, towards leveraging technology in implementation of the scheme, various steps like capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE-Agri App & uploading it on the NCIP, allowing insurance companies to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP and usage of remote sensing based yield estimation through YES- TECH have already been taken to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.  Crop Loss Assessment App (CLAP), developed as a digital mobile application to streamline and improve the efficiency of crop loss assessments for localised calamities/post-harvest losses for individual farms and land parcels under PMFBY. The use of CLAP has been made mandatory for all the States/UTs under the scheme. (f): Flood management and anti-erosion schemes are formulated and implemented by concerned State Governments. The Union Government supplements the efforts of the States by providing technical guidance and also promotional financial assistance for management of floods in critical areas.Integrated flood approach aims at adopting judicious mix of structural and non- structural measures to provide a reasonable degree of protection against floods damages at economic cost. Short-term and long-term food mitigation measures include watershed and catchment management, wetland restoration, strengthening of early warning systems and floodplain zoning. Union Government is implementing a centrally sponsored “Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP)” for providing central assistance to States for works related to flood control, anti-erosion, drainage development, anti-sera erosion etc. during 2021-26. Total central assistance amounting to Rs.9139.75 crore has been released under FMBAP Scheme to various States upto March 2026. Central assistance of Rs. 1629.02 Crore has been released to the State Government of Assam since the XI Plan for 142 projects. 142 flood management projects of Assam have been included under the FMBAP Scheme, out of which 111 projects have been completed, benefitting 7.364 Lakh ha of land and a population of 174.52 Lakh. 30 projects have been foreclosed. The following measures are being taken by the Department of Agriculture, Assam, for restoration of flood-affected agricultural land and for protection of cropping from recurring flood damage. i) District Flood Contingency Plans have been prepared for all the 35 districts of the State, providing for crop-wise and situation-wise contingency measures. ii) Distribution of flood-tolerant and short-duration seed varieties, including submergence-tolerant paddy varieties, for re-sowing and late transplanting in flood-affected areas. iii) Establishment of Community Nurseries for raising of seedlings and their supply to farmers whose seedbeds have been damaged due to floods. iv) A buffer stock of certified seed is maintained through the Assam Seeds Corporation Ltd. (ASCL) for immediate deployment in the affected districts. *****