Rains damage crops in Godavari

Untimely strong winds and heavy rains that lashed some parts of East and West Godavari districts on Wednesday night, caused heavy damage to various crops, particularly paddy.
While farmers estimated the damage of paddy over around 1 lakh acres in the Godavari districts, agriculture officials do not agree with this and maintain that there was no serious damage to crops.
Leaders of farmers’ union alleged that besides paddy, other crops like mango, cashew, banana, guava, vegetables, flowers, corn and coconut were also damaged due to the rains, which lashed the area for over two hours continuously.
After several protests against shortage of water, nearly six lakh farmers of the Godavari districts had raised paddy over nearly 2.13 lakh hectare, including 1.03 hectare in East Godavari. Nearly 40 per cent of the harvest was also completed till date.
In some places, harvested yield was washed away due to the unexpected rains and winds. Rains were recorded at 16.7 mm in West Godavari, while it was around 17 mm in East Godavari.
The secretary of the AP Farmers’ Union (APFU), East Godavari unit, Mr G. Appa Reddy, said that though the rains brought much relief to lakhs of people from the scorching heat, it resulted in heavy damage to paddy over around 10,000 hectare in East Godavari. While the loss was highest in the Amalapuram area, it was lowest at Pithapuram, he added.
The secretary of APFU, West Godavari unit, Mr B. Balaram, said that their union members had visited damaged crop areas in the district on Thursday and identified over 60,000 acres of paddy damage.
Tenant farmers had largely suffered due to the rains, he said. He demanded that government announce compensation of Rs 5,000 per acre of damaged crop.
Speaking to this correspondent, the joint director of agriculture, East Godavari, Mr T. Nandaiah, said that damage to the crops due to the sudden rains was not so high. However, the department was taking steps of ascertaining loss, he added.