The incessant rains, which paralysed the normal life in several districts of the state for the last four days, caused extensive crop damage in 25,000 acres of land in the district, leaving the farming community in doldrums.
While the groundnut seeds sown in recent days got rusted, standing crops like banana, tomato, papaya and others got damaged. The farmers, who suffered crop loss last year due to poor rains, fell victim to the heavy downpour this year.
Following the weather forecast that the district would witness good rainfall this year, farmers kept a lot of hopes and cultivated several commercial crops apart from traditional crops. But, all their hopes got shattered due to the sudden downpour in four consecutive days.
Pendlimarri, Chintakomma Dinne, Vempallee, Muddanur, Chinnamandem, Rayachoti, Chakrayapet, Lakkireddypalle, Pulivendula, Vemula, Veerapunayinipalle, Erraguntla, Chapadu mandals, paddy, groundnut, chilli, banana, onion, maize crops developed rust, grey leaf spot and other diseases due to the wet and humid conditions.
After making a visit in the rain-damaged areas, district agriculture and horticulture department officials prepared the crop loss preliminary estimates which said crops in 25,480 acres were damaged. Almost all the crops cultivated in the Kharif season were lost.
According to sources, cotton got damaged in 5,486 hectares, paddy in 1,562, groundnut in 944 and jowar in 748 hectares.
Speaking to Express, joint director of agriculture Jayachandra said they prepared the preliminary crop loss estimate basing on the situation as of now. “However, we will visit all the flood-hit areas, prepare a comprehensive report on the crop damage and submit it to the district collector who, in turn, will forward it to the state government recommending compensation to farmers,” he explained.
Apart from the rain, some of the tanks, which got breached due to the downpour worsened the situation in various parts of the district.
The Kamalakur tank in Badvel mandal, Akkalrreddypalle tank in Porumamilla mandal, Timmareddypalle and Musalreddypalle tanks in Kalasapadu mandal and Chennavaram tank in Kasinayina mandal breached and flooded surrounding fields and inundated nearby villages. In B Kodur mandal, following the release of water from the Lower Sagileru reservoir, several low-lying areas have been inundated.
In Kadapa town, rain water gushed into many houses with the drains getting choked or encroached.
Even in the drought-prone Anantapur district, groundnut farmers suffered losses due to the sudden rains.