Farmers in Namakkal district will get the entire drought relief fund of Rs. 56.11 crore. “The package will benefit a total of 1,17,458 farmers who suffered crop or yield loss of more than 50 per cent on an area of 1,80,981 acres, as on January 2013”, Collector D. Jagannathan told The Hindu on Friday. An initial survey on the impact of the drought was conducted in January. A detailed report was submitted to the State Government and to a high level committee headed by Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam and five other Ministers. They conducted a study to assess the impact of the drought across Salem, Namakkal and Erode districts on March 22. Mr. Jagannathan said of the total nine places visited by the committee in the three districts, six were in Namakkal. “This covered six of the 15 blocks in this district. Each spot had a detailed report on normal rainfall, drop in rainfall and impact of the drought with supportive photographs, and farmers reaction,” he added. “The district has received the second highest relief in Western Tamil Nadu, only next to Tirupur. “We have fixed May 15 as the deadline for the relief amount to reach the affected farmers”, he concluded. The area under rain fed-cultivation affected by the drought (1,65,204.80 acres) will get Rs. 49,56,14,391 as relief at Rs. 3,000 per acre. The 13,233 acres of irrigated cultivation (except paddy) will get Rs. 5,29,32,100 (Rs. 4,000 per acre). Paddy cultivation affected on 2,413 acres will get relief to the tune of Rs. 1,20,65,825 (Rs. 5,000 per acre). Joint Director of Agriculture (In-charge) B. Muralidharan said that the areas that suffered more than 50 per cent crop loss was 53 per cent of the total area under cultivation in the district. “Area under cultivation that stood at 3,41,942 acres in 2012-13 is 60,000 acres less than the 4,01,375 average area under cultivation in the last 10 years”, he added.