Guntur: Enumeration of damaged crops begins

Guntur: Agriculture and horticulture department teams started enumeration processes to assess the crop damage caused by Cyclone Michaung on Tuesday.

The enumeration process will be continued till December 18. After that, crop damage report will be displayed at RBKs for social audit from December 18 to December 22. The district administration will submit a report on crop damages to the state government for taking further action after taking the objections into consideration.

According to preliminary reports, paddy crop lodged in over 60,000 acres, Bengal gram in 25,000 acres, black gram and chilli, other crops inundated in 15,000 acres.

Paddy crop ready for threshing was the worst hit in Guntur district and farmers worry that they will get heavy loss due to damage to the crop. Paddy crop is getting discoloured in Ponnur. The farmers worry that the traders will offer lower prices for the discoloured paddy and inferior quality of crop.

Due to the lodge of chilli gardens, the chilli crop is getting discoloured in Palnadu district. The farmers are worried that the traders will offer lower prices for damaged chilli.

Meanwhile, Guntur district joint collector G Rajakumari along with AP Civil Supplies Corporation district manager G Lakshmi visited chilli gardens at Lemallepadu, Katrapadu and Ananthavarappadu villages.

She assured that the government will extend helping hand to the farmers whose crops were damaged due to the cyclone. Chilli farmers said the chilli crop ready for picking was lodged and damaged. They said they will get heavy losses due to crop damage.