CHENNAI: In what could bring cheer to the farming community confronted with the challenges of a water crisis drought and poor groundwater table, the Tamil Nadu government has persuaded three insurance companies to sanction Rs 928.12 crore towards compensation of damaged samba crop in the last two months. The sanction of such a huge amount of compensation, officials say, is a record of sorts. While the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited sanctioned Rs 888 crore as second instalment on Wednesday, three insurance companies released Rs 40 crore over two months until Tuesday. The amount of Rs 888 crore will be credited to 2.92 lakh farmers from Friday. The farmers, who hail from ten districts, faced severe damage to their long-term samba paddy crop. "The insurance company will credit the money to the bank accounts of beneficiaries within ten days. We are expecting Rs 1,600 crore additionally by July-end," said a senior government official, seeking anonymity. Tiruvarur farmers will get Rs 489 crore, Ramanathapuram Rs 355 crore and Trichy Rs 20 crore, while Ariyalur, Dindigul, Erode, Kanyakumari, Karur, Madurai, Namakkal and Perambalur districts Rs 24 crore. With agriculture becoming a risky venture, the state government increased its premium subsidy to Rs 428 crore from last year's Rs 53 crore. "Tamil Nadu is the one of the first states to get a huge sum for samba crop. The continuous monitoring with frequency of meetings, including video conferencing at national level helped us get the compensation fast. The state also released its premium subsidy promptly and conducted the crop cutting experiment in April and May," the official added. Normally, it takes a year to get the insured sum. TN had enrolled 15.37 lakh farmers and covered 31.85 lakh acres for crop insurance last year. Due to unprecedented drought in the state, the state government already disbursed farm input subsidy of Rs 2,247 crore as relief to the farmers. The state has also been pursuing with the banks not to take punitive action for the loans. In the coming months, farmers who suffered damage to horticultural crops will get compensation based on cut-off dates. "New India Insurance will release huge sum of money for farmers of Thanjavur and Nagappatinam. We heard they are in the final stages of paper work. But we are keeping our fingers crossed on ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company," another official said. The state relies heavily on southwest and northeast monsoon in the months of June to July, and October to December respectively for its water needs. Despite meteorological department's prediction of normal rainfall, northeast monsoon registered a deficit of 62%, while the southwest monsoon a deficit of 20%. Cyclonic storm, NADA ended in a whimper, while Vardah was a wind storm, leaving behind a trail of destruction in three districts, Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur. Worse, the Mettur reservoir received only 66.5tmfcft of Cauvery water until December, and farmers found it inadequate even to raise a single crop.