Visakhapatnam: Cyclone Michaung had a major impact on North Andhra paddy farmers and their crops were drowned in the torrential rains and resultant floods.
Officials say hundreds of acres of paddy were inundated and thousands of acres of crops were destroyed in the region. The farmers had done the cultivation with borrowed money and they are in deep trouble now.
Crops in thousands of acres were destroyed in Srikakulam, Manyam and Vizianagaram districts.
In Saluru constituency of Manyam district, officials have been asked to inspect the cyclone-affected areas and ensure that the farmers do not face any problems.
“As the rain did not come when the paddy was harvested, the crop was wetted by motors. With great difficulties, the crops were saved. There was a threat of pests to the rice. After all these, now the three days of rain gave nightmares to North Andhra farmers,” agriculture officials said.
They say many hectares of crops in the zone remained waterlogged.
Crop loss is assessed by volunteers in each village and flood-affected areas of North Andhra region. The paddyfields in various villages of Kothavalasa mandal have been submerged in water.
As of Wednesday morning, 132.8mm of rainfall has been recorded in Kothavalasa mandal.
In Kothavalasa, Tummikapalli, Chinnipalem, Simhadripalem, Jogaiyapalem, Ganishettipalem, Mangalapalem, Appannapalem, Tummalapalem and other areas, hundreds of acres of crops were drenched by rainwater.
Some farmers heeded the advice of officials and piled paddy in the fields. However, due to the incessant heavy rain, the grains got wet in many areas. Tehsildar Srinivas Mishra, deputy tehsildar Ramesh, assistant director of agriculture Vijaya and others inspected the mandal’s fields.
These officials contacted 441 farmers in the mandal so far and identified them as “severely hit” by crop loss. In a stretch of 326 acres, farmers were in distress.
In Anakapalli, along with the rain, the Eleru canal overflowed and flooded many fields. Eleru canal overflowed from Koppaka to areas near Rajupalem and crops in Anakapalli and South 2 areas were completely submerged.
Agriculture officials estimate that crops over more than 1200 acres have been damaged in this mandal. The situation has worsened in many parts of the 23 panchayats of Cheedikada mandal. Anandapuram mandal’s paddy farmers say they faced severe losses.
