The Tamil Nadu agriculture department's ambitious shift to a digital platform for assessing crop damage after Cyclone Ditwah has hit significant roadblocks, causing severe delays in relief enumeration across the crucial Cauvery delta region.
App Glitches Leave Tenant Farmers in Peril
Since December 1, officials have been using the 'Crop Damage Assessment' mobile application to record losses and determine eligibility for compensation from the state disaster response fund. However, a critical flaw has emerged: the app's geospatial tagging system links land parcels solely to the registered owner's name, not the cultivator.
This oversight threatens to exclude thousands of tenant farmers who cultivate leased land, temple properties, or government poramboke land. "Thousands of farmers cultivate leased land every year. Now they are forced to produce revenue records to prove they are the actual cultivators," explained P Srinivasan, a farmer leader from Mayiladuthurai. Without official verification of their cultivator status, these tenants risk being denied compensation entirely, a situation that has considerably slowed down field assessment work.
Practical Nightmares in Waterlogged Fields
The technical issues are compounded by immense practical difficulties on the ground. The assessment protocol requires officials to input land survey numbers, farmer details, crop type, extent of damage, and geotagged photographs of the farmer standing in the flooded field.
Persistent waterlogging from the cyclone has made this photography nearly impossible. While fields near roads are accessible, many plots lie hundreds of metres inside, reachable only by wading through knee-deep slush. "Low-lying fields are still under water and harbour snakes and other venomous creatures. Taking photographs was never a problem in the old manual system," complained P Kamal Ram, a farmer representative from Nagapattinam. The frustration has led to growing demands from farmers for an immediate return to manual enumeration.
Race Against Time with Inadequate Staff
With the government's deadline of December 12 fast approaching, the existing strength of assistant agricultural officers is proving inadequate for the massive task. The cyclone submerged more than 82,000 hectares (over 2 lakh acres) of month-old samba and two-week-old thaladi paddy crops across Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai, and Cuddalore districts.
In response, the department has deployed additional staff from non-delta districts like Madurai, Salem, Dindigul, Namakkal, Villupuram, and Karur to the delta region to accelerate the survey. Agriculture officials maintain they are coordinating closely with the revenue department to resolve ownership disputes. "The village administrative officer will accompany the assistant agricultural officer during every assessment to avoid confusion," a senior official stated.
The state government has announced relief of Rs 20,000 per hectare (approximately Rs 8,086 per acre) for paddy fields where damage exceeds 33%. However, the combined effect of the app's technical shortcomings, field accessibility problems, and staffing challenges now threatens the timely delivery of this crucial financial aid to farmers reeling from the cyclone's impact.
