Hailstorm causes widespread damage to maize crop in Jagtial

Jagtial: Heavy rains that lashed Jagtial for the last two days caused damage to maize crop in several places in the district. Farmers were worried that the rains in several mandals of the district damaged the maize crop that neared harvesting stage and crop fell to the ground. Heavy rains on Monday night also caused severe damage to vegetable farmers.

In Sarangapur and Raikal mandals, entire maize crop was damaged while in other mandals crops on hundreds of acres were submerged due to unseasonal rains. As the government said not to cultivate paddy, many farmers took up other crops, especially maize. Meanwhile, the highest rainfall of 68 mm was recorded in Govindaram in Madipalli mandal. The lowest rainfall of 4.8 mm was recorded at Pegadapalli mandal headquarters. The district headquarters of Jagtial received 63 mm of rainfall, the Meteorological Department said.

The District Agriculture Officer informed that a total of 183 farmers were affected due to the unseasonal rains as standing crops in 216 acres were damaged in 10 villages of three mandals. Maize crops in 181 acres was damaged due to hailstorm.