7 districts bear the brunt

Amaravati: Phethai has broken the back-bone of the farmers in about seven districts. In Srikakulam, one farmer unable to bear the loss, had a heart attack and died in his fields in Kosamala in Meliaputti mandal. He was identified as Gottipalli Chinnadu.

According to sources, he raised his paddy crop by borrowing heavily. The state suffered a production loss of 26,232 tonnes in all the seven districts due to the impact of the cyclone. The districts are: Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam.

The figure relating to production loss might go up as assessment is still going on. According to officials, crops in an area of 10,856 hectares have been affected of the total cropped area of 9.37 lakh hectares in the entire state. Of this paddy in an area of 5,857 hectares, tobacco in 596 hectares, maize in 3,988 hectares and pulses in 415 hectares had been damaged.

Krishna district stood first in suffering maximum damage to paddy crop at 3,984 hectares while the extent in Prakasam was 800 hectares and in West Godavari 703 hectares. The cyclone left misery and privation for famers who now are looking at the government for succour.

They want the government to provide enough input subsidy to go in for next crop. The farmers are going through an unremitting agony since the cyclone damaged standing crops at a time when they were about to be harvested in East and West Godavari districts.

In Krishna, the damage was more because harvesting is done a little later than in East and West Godavari districts where it is early. As paddy fields are inundated, the farmers wonder who would purchase their discoloured and germinating paddy.