Untimely rain damages paddy, mango crops

 KAKINADA: The people of erstwhile East and West Godavari districts experienced rain accompanied by huge gales, lightning and thunderbolts on Sunday. Trees in several places were uprooted. Rain damaged the paddy crop stocked on the ground at several farms. They were about to be sold to Rythu Bharosa Kendras. Standing crops were also damaged.

Mango farmers are also worried over the rain. The size of mango may not increase due to the untimely rain. Mangoes may attract pests due to the rain, resulting in huge losses to farmers. Many mangoes fell to the ground. Traffic was stranded on Samalkot road as a tree fell on the road.

Ramachandrapuram revenue division officer Sindhu Subrhamanyam urged farmers to stop the harvesting of the crop for two more days due to the rain. She along with tahsildars and agriculture officials visited Utrumilli village in Ramachandrapuram mandal and Kunduru village in K Gangavaram mandal. Farmers should protect their harvested crop by covering it with tarpaulins, she has proposed.

Amalapuram RDO, Vasantha Rayudu, visited Mamidikuduru and Rollapalem of Amalapuram mandal in Ambedkar Konaseema district on Sunday and studied the condition of the paddy crop. He would submit a report to higher officials on the damage to paddy and other crops due to the untimely rain.

An average of 15.8mm rainfall was recorded in Konaseema district. The highest rainfall recorded was at Amalapuram, with 47.2mm and the lowest rainfall was recorded at Gannavaram, with 1.6mm rainfall.

West Godavari district agriculture officer Z Venkateswara Rao said paddy crop was cultivated in the district to an extent of 2.13 lakhs acres and it was now in the harvesting stage. Some 30 per cent harvesting has been completed so far.

He said that due to the meteorological department predictions, there were chances of rain and farmers should postpone the harvest for another two days. Most farmers cultivated MTU-1121, which would not fall down in the fields due to the rain.

He said it was noticed that some farmers kept the paddy crop on the roadsides. They should cover these with tarpaulins to protect them from rain.

They should take the paddy in gunny bags and sell these in packs to RBKs. If the paddy is wet due to rain, the farmers spread saline water on the paddy, to enable it to avoid the discolouring.