Mandous cyclone: Paddy farmers worry over huge loss

Vijayawada(NTR District): Paddy farmers of Krishna district are worried that their paddy may get damaged or discoloured due to the rains triggered by Mandous cyclone. The cyclone had inundated crops in around 8,000 acres in the district.

Farmers are tense as they would incur heavy loss if rainwater do not recede fast, who are already struggling to get minimum support price for the produce.

Paddy is the most important crop in the district with a crop area of 4.27 lakh acres. So far, only 40% of crop, i.e., 1.80 lakh acres, is harvested in Krishna district.

The harvested paddy that was kept in open lands for drying was soaked in rainwater. Farmers have no facilities to protect the yield from soaking.

The district registered moderate to heavy rains on Saturday due to impact of cyclone Mandous, which crossed coast near AP and Tamil Nadu border.

Rainwater was logged in more than 8,000 acres of paddy fields in Krishna, said J Manohar, Joint Director, Agriculture, Krishna district. He said the officials will conduct study and collect loss details.

The government has announced minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,545 for 75 kg A grade paddy variety and Rs 1,530 for common variety, said Alla Gopala Krishna, president of Water Bodies Association, Andhra Pradesh. He said farmers are struggling to get support price of Rs 1,200 due to moisture. If rains continue for some more days, moisture percent of paddy will increase and farmers get very less price, he added.

Gopala Krishna said that only 1.50 metric tonnes of paddy was procured in the erstwhile Krishna district, which comprises Krishna and NTR districts. He said farmers will be at loss if rains continue for some more days, who were already suffering due to late payment of procurement.

Harvested paddy crop was drenched in Mopidevi, Challapalli, Kankipadu, Totlavalleru, Gudlavalleru, Movva and other mandals due to cyclone Mandous. Kharif paddy harvesting season concludes by the end of December every year. Unfortunately, due to various reasons more than 50 per cent of crop is yet to be harvested in the district. Farmers are facing an uphill task of saving the harvested crop from rains.