Tamil Nadu: Unseasonal rain, gale damages paddy on 1K hectares, says agriculture dept

After the final crop enumeration process, the agriculture department stated that paddy cultivated over 1,000 hectares of land was completely damaged after the recent unseasonal rain in Madurai. Further, the summer gale and rain in the past have damaged more crops in the district.

The unseasonal rain in May has put the farmers from Madurai in a fix, with paddy on large tracts of land completely ruined. As per the agriculture department’s primary survey, it was found that over 1,070 of land were inundated, with a majority from the Chellampatti block. The agriculture department officials had advised farmers to drain off the excess water and take preventive measures to prevent the crops from being damaged completely.

After the final enumeration process was carried out in Madurai, it was discovered that nearly 1,039 hectares of paddy crop had suffered over 33% crop damage due to the unseasonal rain. The enumeration reports have been sent to the state government to process the compensation.
In areas such as Mellur, Chellampatti and Vadipatti, waterlogging has severely affected crops, with farmers urging the government to immediately disburse the compensation as the Kuruvai season is set to commence.

A senior official from the agriculture department said that most crops in Mellur, Vadipatti and Chellampatti are nearing the harvest stage. Even though the crops have fallen due to the rain and gale, preventive measures such as draining the excess water from the fields could save the crop, the official said.

Accordingly, farmers were advised to drain the water from their fields and another enumeration will be carried out to assess further damage, the official stated.

This article has been republished from The New Indian Express.