ADILABAD: Incessant rains and floods hit the farmers as there is massive damage to standing crops on thousands of acres of agricultural lands in the region.
According to rough estimates, standing crops were damaged on more than 90,000 acres in the erstwhile Adilabad district. Some 30 per cent of the crops was damaged in some areas due to the floods while in some other areas, the floodwater washed away the standing crops.
Many farmers had invested heavily for sowing seeds for the second and third time following the lack of germination of seeds amid complaints that fake seeds were sold in the region.
Several agricultural fields were inundated and floodwaters uprooted the standing crops like soya, cotton, red gram, and jowar. The damage is high where the fields were adjacent to tanks, streams and rivulets. Rivers such as Godavari, Penganga and Pranahitha were in spate.
The backwaters of the irrigation projects also flooded the agriculture fields.
The agriculture department would start surveys to assess the damage to standing crops. The overflowing of Peddavagu caused large-scale crop damage.
Officials estimated that nearly 2,000 acres of standing crops were damaged on the outskirts of Agharguda and Penchikalpet, Ellur and Gannaram villages in Penchikalpet mandal.
BJP leader Palvai Harishbabu visited the affected villages to take stock of the situation and urged the state government to pay `20,000 per acre as compensation. The standing crop damage was high in Komaram Bheem Asifabad as also Mancherial and Adilabad districts.
Minister Allola Indrakaran held a review meeting to assess the damage to standing crops and the extent of the ongoing rescue and rehabilitation works following the floods in Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts, on Friday.
Farmer Ravinder of Indravelli said some 30 per cent of the standing crop was damaged due to floods and farmers have to invest additional amounts for purchase of fertilizers and pesticides to save the remaining plants as many of them are prone to pest attack.
