Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday, October 26, declared Devbhumi Dwarka, Kutch, Jamnagar and Porbandar drought-affected. The state will pay farmers whose crops failed Rs 8,500 per hectare from the State Disaster Response Fund, for up to two hectares each, PTI reported via ThePrint. The declaration runs for six months from November 1, according to IANS, carried by The Hawk.
Gujarat as a whole ended the monsoon at about 89 per cent of its average rainfall. The four districts sit at the dry western edge of that average. Figures the state placed before the Assembly in September showed Kutch at 29.29 per cent of its seasonal normal, Jamnagar at 28.88 per cent, Porbandar near 18 per cent and Devbhumi Dwarka at 6.41 per cent, IANS reported at the time. South Gujarat had crossed 100 per cent by then.
Six weeks between the Assembly debate and Monday’s order
Congress and AAP legislators pressed for a drought declaration during the September session. The government answered on September 11 that a rainfall shortfall alone could not trigger one. It pointed to the Centre’s Drought Management Manual of 2016, which asks states to weigh sowing data, satellite vegetation readings, soil moisture and groundwater, and then confirm crop damage through field checks in at least 10 per cent of affected villages by October 31.
That process accounts for the late-October date, which lands just ahead of the survey deadline. The September statement also described uneven rain in parts of Saurashtra and North Gujarat. No district from those regions made Monday’s list.
What a farmer in the four districts can claim
- Crop aid: Rs 8,500 per hectare, capped at two hectares, so a maximum of Rs 17,000 per farmer.
- Fodder: subsidised at Rs 2 a kilo. The state says it has handed out about 1.21 crore kg already and holds roughly 3 crore kg more, Loktej reported.
- Cattle camps: Rs 80 per animal per day for two months, after which officials will review the situation.
- Rural work: up to 150 days of employment in the affected areas under the VB-G RAM G scheme, from November 1. The national law behind that scheme guarantees 125 days, so the state is adding 25, as The Logical Indian noted.
Livestock matters more here than in most of Gujarat. Kutch and the Saurashtra coast depend heavily on cattle and dairy income, and fodder prices climb fast in a dry winter. A Rs 2 rate and funded cattle camps may do more for many households in Banni or the Dwarka coast than the per-hectare cheque.
Rs 8,500 a hectare against last year’s Rs 22,000
Rs 8,500 is the SDRF norm for unirrigated crops that Gujarat has used in earlier relief orders. It sits well below recent packages. After the 2025 floods the state paid Rs 22,000 a hectare for up to two hectares, Loktej recalled. The last drought declaration, in 2018, covered 51 talukas in 11 districts and paid Rs 6,800 a hectare, with MGNREGA work raised from 100 to 150 days.
This year’s list is far shorter, at four districts, and the state has not yet published a taluka count. The weak monsoon has already pushed up power demand across the state, as our earlier report on the record 29,822 MW peak showed, and the rabi season in Kutch and Saurashtra now depends on how much canal and reservoir water the state can spare.
Sources: PTI via ThePrint, IANS via The Hawk, Loktej, The Logical Indian, IANS via NewKerala (September 11 Assembly statement)
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.