Unseasonal rains cause widespread crop loss

Nalgonda: Unseasonal rains has come as a curse to farmers in the erstwhile Nalgonda district.Unseasonal rains for two days on Saturday and Sunday inflicted heavy loss on standing and also the harvested paddy crop. Farmers brought water-soaked paddy to various market yards and IKP centres.

In several parts of the erstwhile district, farmers staged protests, demanding that the government purchase the water-soaked paddy at minimum support price.The unseasonal rains came as a rude shock to farmers as standing paddy crop, which was ready for harvest, fell to ground.

Nalgonda Joint Collector Naryana Reddy and Suryapet Joint Collector Sanjeeva Reddy assured the farmers that the damaged paddy would be bought at minimum support price. They visited Tipparthi and Suryapet paddy purchasing centres respectivelyMLA Veeresham, after visiting the paddy purchasing centre in Nakrekal, contacted the District Collector Gaurav Uppal over the phone from the spot and urged him to ensure that water-soaked paddy is purchased at minimum support price.

At Suryapet Agriculture market some of the paddy heaps were washed away due to heavy rains. So also stocked paddy was soaked and washed away in Mothkur market in Yadadri- Bhongir district.

Standing paddy crops, which was ready for harvest fell to ground in Rajapet, Addagudur, Bhongir rural , Athmakur (M) mandals in Yadadri-Bhongir district and also in Nalgonda mandal. Two cows died when they were stuck by lightning at Mellacheruvu Thanda of Samastannaryanpur Mandal in Yadadri-Bhongir district.

The farmers expected a good harvest with considerably less incidence of pest attack and sufficient irrigation.
Mango trees lost their fruit, lemon trees were uprooted, papaya plants were damaged leaving farmers in despair.