Cyclonic rains lay waste crops across mandals

Khammam\\Kothagudem: Farmers on Tuesday staged protests at places demanding the officials to procure paddy damaged due to cyclonic rains in the district.

A large number of farmers staged rasta-roko at Mondikunta in Aswarapuram mandal of Kothagudem district. They accused the officials of failing to act though they were fully aware of warning about the cyclone. The local agriculture officials assured farmers that their issue would be taken to the notice of government for proper action.

Standing crops in large extent area and harvested paddy were damaged due to continuous rainfall since Sunday evening. The impact was more in Kothagudem district. Eleven mandals witnessed excess rainfall and 13 mandals received above 50 mm rainfall.

The heavy rains and strong winds caused havoc to banana plantations in Dammapeta mandal. In the same manner, farmers growing vegetables also suffered huge loss due to the cyclonic rains.

Bundles of paddy sheaves left in the fields to dry out before processing. The processed paddy stocked at paddy procurement centres and agriculture market yards and at open yards in the villages were soaked leaving the farmers in a sticky situation.

Meanwhile, officials in Khammam and Kothagudem districts have begun the assessment of the loss to standing crops and paddy caused by the rains.

The officials of Agriculture, Revenue and other concerned departments visited fields across both the districts on Tuesday to take stock of the situation and to report the same to higher officials. Joint Collector Venkateswaralu informed that about 131 paddy procurement centres were set up in Kothagudem. About 89, 334 metric tonnes of paddy was procured and sold to millers.

Meanwhile, Kothagudem District Collector Rajat Kumar Saini held a meeting with Joint Collector K Venkateswaralu and Agriculture Officer Abhimanyudu to review the rain situation and the damage caused by rains.

He directed the officials to submit a report on mandal-wise crop loss. Former MLA J Venkat Rao, in a statement issued on Tuesday, appealed to the farmers not to panic over the loss caused by the unseasonal rains. He promised that he would convince the government to procure the damaged paddy.

Following his directions, the TRS workers toured many mandals in Kothagudem district to assess the loss and boost the morale of the affected farmers.

Kothagudem and Wyra MLAs Vanama Venkateswara Rao and  L Ramulu Naik visited local market yard and interacted with farmers. MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy in a statement asked the government to immediately launch a survey to estimate the crop losses and offer proper compensation to farmers.