Guntur: Heavy rain, flash floods cause irreparable loss to farmers

Guntur: The incessant rains that lashed many districts of the State, have left trails of devastation and caused irreparable loss to the farmers who were expecting good yields this year and earn profits on their hard labour. They became poorer as the all their crops were submerged in rainwater.

According to officials, heavy rains and flash floods damaged crops in 87,531 acres in East Godavari, Guntur, Prakasam, Chittoor, Nellore, Anantapuram, Chittoor and Kurnool districts in the State. As per the preliminary reports reaching here, chilli crop was the worst hit. As many as 51,166 farmers suffered losses. According to official reports, acid lime, banana, betel vine, flowers, guava, mango, papaya, pomegranate, sweet orange, tomato, turmeric, tapioca, vegetables, spices, watermelon crops were affected.

Chilli crop was affected to an extent of 36,449 acres, onion crop was damaged in 15,970 acres, tomato in 4,379 acres, vegetable gardens in 10,375 acres, flower gardens in 4,758 acres, banana in 7,719 acres in the State. According to preliminary reports, the government has to pay an input subsidy of Rs 49.38 crore to the farmers whose crop was damaged due to heavy rains and flash floods.

The official teams consisting of the Revenue, Agriculture, Horticulture, Panchayat Raj departments will conduct enumeration to assess the crop damage. After completion of enumeration, the officials will get an exact crop damage report. Based on that, the government will pay input subsidy to the farmers, who suffered more than 33 per cent of crops.

Due to damage of vegetable gardens, chilli gardens, onion and tomato crops in Kurnool and Anantapur districts, the traders expect the prices of onion and tomato to increase in the days to come. The consumers will have to spend more to purchase vegetables.