PATNA, Sept. 12 -- Even as the water level in major rivers have started receeding giving relief to people in catchment areas of Ganga and Gandak though Kosi is still in spate, agriculture department has started the assessment of crop damages in districts where flood like situation prevailed with focus also on districts where deficit rains have added to the woes of farmers. Till date, Bihar has witnessed a deficit rainfall of 35.3% (as on September 10 from June 1), which is higher than the corresponding period last year when the state had witnessed a deficit rainfall of 31.8% less than normal. Of course in last 10 days of September month, the state has recorded 8.5% higher rainfall than normal whereas in the corresponding period last year in September, the state had witnessed deficit rainfall of 60.8%. Agriculture officials said that the long dry spells in the monsoon months have caused consternation among farmers especially in southern-western, north and eastern parts of the state with almost 26 districts having suffered deficit rains so far. But , at the same time, there has been a flood-like situation due to heavy discharge of water from upstream in Ganga, Gandak and Kosi rivers creating a flood like situation in the catchment areas of the rivers causing crop damages. "The rainfall pattern this year has been quite erratic with long dry spells. Farmers, especially in south west parts of the state like Aurangabad, Kaimur and Gayaji and certain districts in north Bihar, too have suffered due to dry conditions. So, our approach is to assess the crop damages both in the districts where rise of water level had caused flood like situation leading to damages of standing crop and also those districts where dry conditions due to deficit rains have left farmers worrying about the quality of their crop mainly paddy," said a senior agriculture official. Apart from the assessment of crop damages in districts, the agriculture department has started providing diesel subsidy to farmers applying for the assistance to irrigate their fields in districts where dry conditions pose a threat to the quality of standing crops mainly paddy. "A big number of farmers have applied for diesel subsidy and we have provided them the disbursements for irrigation purposes. It is an initiative having been done since last month," said another agriculture official. Agriculture minister Vijay Kumar Sinha , in a press statement, said that the government would provide compensation to farmers as per norms who suffered crop damages in districts affected by flood like situation after the assessment and also provide contingent crop seeds for sowing alternative crops. Sinha said all field officers have been asked to submit detailed report of crop damages in affected districts having witnessed deluge at the earliest so that the compensation and other assistance could be extended to them. Meanwhile, the water level in several major rivers has started receding while the water level in Kosi remained high as per figures till 6 pm on Friday. The Kosi's discharge at the Birpur barrage was recorded at 1.41 lakh cusec with the rising trend with the highest water discharge recorded this year stood at 2.55 lakh cusec on July 20, as per official data. Incidentally, the water level in Ganga witnessed a declining trend at Digha Ghat , Gandhi Ghat and Hatidah (all in Patna district) and Munger but it remained steady at Buxar. Around 4.7 million people have been affected by floods across 561 gram panchayats in 87 blocks of 15 districts including Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Vaishali, Bhagalpur ,Madhepura and others. A total of 1221 community kitchens are currently operating in the affected districts with aorund 5.973 million people ( number of plates) have so far been served meals, a government press statement said....