Farmers Left In The Lurch: Most crops still under water in state

Vijayawada: Heavy rains, apathy of the government towards farmers and inaction by water resources officials have left the farmers in lurch in the state.

Though rains have receded, the flood waters in farms remain stagnated as canal operations and maintenance works were not done in time resulting in immersion of paddy and commercial crops in thousands of acres.

According to information, over one lakh acres of paddy crop and over 20,000 hectares of oilseeds, commercial crops are estimated to be submerged.

It is said that paddy was sown by adopting a broadcast method. Broadcast sowing method is a traditional method of sowing seeds. In this method, farmers sow the seeds by randomly scattering them on the land while walking around the field. This is damaged from their roots now, farmers rue.

Some commercial and horticulture crops and orchards are also affected due to high moisture percentage. The worst part is that so far, the Revenue and Agriculture departments have not taken up any crop-loss estimation work in the state. According to farmers, even district authorities have not visited the fields.

The officials seem to be confined to office and not bothered about field work, they complain. Farmers claim that they had invested over Rs 10,000 per acre for paddy. This includes the cost of seeds tilling the land, sowing operations, and use of fertilisers. Once water recedes, the entire agricultural operations will have to begin again, they add.