Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said, the government will provide 500 crore rupees to drought-hit West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand for extending a subsidy on diesel, farmers use to power their water pump-sets.

Speaking at a conference on the Rabi crop season in New Delhi, Mr Pawar said, every farmer will get 500 rupees per hectare as diesel subsidy. He said, the decision was taken by the government on Thursday at a high-level meeting.

Mr Pawar said country’s rice production in the 2010-11 crop-year will be better than last year, despite deficient rainfall in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar.

However, the minister said that production could be lower than his initial expectation of 100 million tonnes.

Making a presentation at the meeting, Agriculture Commissioner Gurbachchan Singh said, West Bengal received 16 per cent less rainfall than normal between 1st of June to 8th of September, while Bihar got 25 per cent and Jharkhand got 48 per cent less rainfall than normal.

West Bengal has declared that 11 of its districts are drought-hit, while Bihar has given a similar status to 28 out of 38 districts. All 24 of Jharkhand’s districts have also been declared as drought-hit.