Heavy Rainfall Devastates Crops in Telangana, Leaving Farmers in Distress

In the last few days, the hailstorms that had damaged the district left it devasted. As 20,000 quintals of paddy either got wet or washed away at market yards before the officials could procure it, the farmers' morale was broken. About 14,000 acres of the paddy crop were submerged.

The harvest of the paddy, which was grown on 2.89 lakh acres, was predicted by the officials to be 7.23 lakh metric tonnes. The district administration has established 302 IKP and PACS buying centres to handle the expected five lakh metric tonnes of paddy. The majority of farmers grew their paddy near borewells, which is the primary cause of the harvest's delay.

In several places, the crop has not yet been harvested. When the crop will arrive at the procurement centres the information is unknown to the authorities.

 From the first week of April, farmers began harvesting the crop and start taking it to the procurement centres in small quantities but the officials did not initiate any measures to procure it.

D Srinivas Reddy, Additional Collector of Yadadri district said that because of the canal ayakat in Nalgonda and Suryapet districts, paddy harvesting was completed instantly and buying centres started early. As there is no canal ayakat in Yadadri district, farmers cultivate crops under borewells. This results in delayed harvesting.

He also said that so far, we have procured about 16,976 metric tonnes of paddy. Also, we will buy wet grains. As, we have enough gunny bags, tarpaulins, and moisture and weighing machines at the 302 procurement centres in the district.

In Kamareddy and Nizamabad districts, the recent rains in March and April have created havoc with standing crops and the crops have been damaged on 25,000 acres.

G Veeraswami, Kamareddy District Agricultural Officer (DAO) said that in the month of April, crops have been damaged on 59,000 acres. Most of the damaged crop was paddy. As many as 40,156 farmers were impacted by the damage done to their paddy crops.

Meanwhile, Jitesh V Patil, Kamareddy District Collector inspected the paddy crop damaged by rains. Several agricultural fields were visited by him in Pedda Mallareddy village in Bhiknoor Mandal. He ordered the officials to visit the crops impacted by hailstorms and evaluate the loss that occurred.

In the Adilabad district, rain in the last two days has further damaged paddy, maize, jowar, vegetable and mango crops. In several places, the rivers are overflowing in the district. In Khanapur mandal, paddy brought to the procurement centres by farmers was soaked in the rain. A protest was staged by the Congress leaders over the alleged delay in paddy procurement by the authorities.