The sudden weather shifts and persistent unseasonal rains with hailstorms over the past few months in Maharashtra have put the state’s agricultural sector and its farmers under severe distress. The onslaught of unseasonal rains, which began in October 2025, continued until April 2026, with maximum intensity observed in February and March. Crops cultivated on hundreds of thousands of hectares of lands suffered extensive damage, leaving more than 600,000 farmers across the state in great distress. The state government has approved a fund of ₹166.36 crore, which has come as a big help for affected farmers, compensating them for the crop damages due to unseasonal rains during February and March 2026.
Efforts to Provide Relief to Affected Farmers.
In February 2026, unseasonal rains caused extensive damage to agricultural crops across three districts of the Nagpur Division: Nagpur, Bhandara, and Gadchiroli. Approximately 1,340.44 hectares of agricultural land across these three districts has been devastated. After a relentless February, the rain mayhem ripped through March as well. The state government sanctioned a fund of ₹1.53 crore (₹1,53,52,000 to be exact) to provide relief to the 2,294 farmers affected by this natural calamity in these three districts, especially towards post-disaster house damages and emergency repairs. Similarly, a substantial fund amounting to ₹164.83 crore has been sanctioned by the state government for 19 districts across the state to address the damages incurred during the month of March. Following this Fadnavis government’s decision, an official order was issued by the administration regarding the relief assistance on May 18, 2026. As a result of this decision, 167,595 affected farmers across the 19 districts, along with the 2,294 affected farmers in the three districts of the Nagpur Division, will receive financial assistance directly through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) method. Meanwhile, taking cognizance of the damage caused by unseasonal rains in the Satara district during April 2026, the state government has also approved a relief fund of ₹60.49 lakh (₹60,49,000) specifically for the farmers in that region.
Relief Funds to be Deposited into Bank Accounts via DBT
The areas affected by unseasonal rains in March 2026 include the districts of Pune and Sangli in the Pune Division; Nagpur and Chandrapur in the Nagpur Division; Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri in the Konkan Division; Nanded, Dharashiv, Jalna, Latur, and Hingoli in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Division; Amravati, Yavatmal, and Washim in the Amravati Division; as well as Nashik, Dhule, Nandurbar, Jalgaon, and Ahilyanagar in the Nashik Division. All affected farmers will receive a commensurate compensation through this special relief package, which will be transferred directly to their bank accounts through DBT, as per the government decision dated January 24, 2023. This will ensure transparency in the distribution of funds.
The state government has declared that the allocated relief fund will be a one-time compensation for crop damage due to this particular spell of unseasonal rains and is separate from the relief funds declared against damages from other weather events earlier this year. More than 600,000 farmers across the state have been affected by unseasonal rains that occurred between October 2025 and April 2026, the intensity of which was highest during the three-month period from January to March 2026. During this period, 145,606 hectares of agricultural land across the state sustained huge crop damage, including cash crops such as bananas, onions, papayas, mangoes, and grapes, as well as seasonal crops like wheat, gram, and sorghum. To help farmers recover from this loss, the Fadnavis government announced a relief package of 166.36 crores towards the unseasonal rain compensation for the affected farmers making DBT payments directly into the farmers’ bank accounts.
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