Heavy Unseasonal rains ravage crops in East Godavari District

Rajamahendravaram(East Godavari District): The district is witnessing heavy rains. The untimely rains are causing severe damage to crops. Rabi crop harvesting is going on extensively across the district. In some places, the harvest was completed and the paddy was heaped.

Crops are damaged as rainwater entered the fields and grains got soaked in water.

The parched grain was washed by rains.

Pithapuram farmer P Somaraju said that last Kharif season also he suffered losses due to untimely rains.

Farmers complained that their hard-earned produce was waterlogged. They have been expressing their anger over the pretext of moisture in the grain due to which the paddy purchases were stopped.

Gunny bags were not given on time and the grain remained at fields. The government restrictions and negligence are the reason for their losses, they said.

In Kovvur, 80 per cent of crop has been harvested. Farmers piled grain which will be transported to RBKs. The gunny bags were not delivered on time. The paddy was drenched in rainwater.

Farmers Lakshmana Rao and Maddala Venkatesulu said that it is atrocious that the authorities are indifferent even though it has rained so much and the crops are getting wet.

Grain got wet in Chagallu and Kadiam mandals. In Anantapalli, Telikicharla, Chipurugudem, Nallajrala, and other villages of Nallajarla mandal, paddy, and maize crops were damaged due to rain.

A 6-acre banana crop belonging to Chodavaram farmer Undavalli Jaggarao of Nallajarla mandal fell to the ground. Five acres of maize crop cultivated by Kola Edukondalu were washed away by the floodwaters.

Similar scenes are seen in Peravali and Gopalapuram mandals. Paddy and maize crops were destroyed in Gokavaram mandal. About 500 tons of grain was dried in Gokavaram, Tantikonda, Krishnanipalem.

In Gadelapalem, Kothapalli, Rampayarrampalem, and other villages, 200 tons of maize is getting wet and rotting.

East Godavari District Collector Dr K Madhavi Latha advised the farmers, who did not start harvesting to wait until the rains subside. She held an emergency meeting with the officials of the concerned departments and the millers at the collector’s office.

So far, out of 1.21 lakh metric tonnes, one-lakh metric tonnes of grain have been collected. Joint Collector Tej Bharat appealed to the millers to cooperate with the farmers without any difficulties in terms of providing transport and gunny bags.

District Agriculture Officer S Madhava Rao advised the farmers to take care to avoid sprouts by spraying a 5 per cent salt solution.

In the Kakinada district alone, more than 15,000 acres of paddy crop were submerged. Farmers are afraid that the damage will increase in the wake of the weather department’s warning that the impact of rains will continue for three more days.

In the Kakinada district, 65,352 hectares of paddy were cultivated during the Rabi season. Harvest is over in 30,441 hectares. The district agriculture department has advised not to cut crops in the current weather conditions.