JEYPORE: Paddy farmers of Jeypore are a worried lot. Sudden rainfall on Tuesday has left agriculture land inundated at a time when they were readying to harvest the paddy crop. At other places, harvested paddy have been damaged due to rain.
As on Tuesday, paddy was being harvested in Kundra, Jeypore, Kotpad and Borrigumma and mandis were opened in these areas for procurement. The harvested crops had been kept in the open when rains lashed the areas. Standing paddy crops have also been damaged.
Farmers said the untimely rain will affect the quality of paddy. Millers are likely to face issues like discoloured, damaged and broken grains as a result of which, farmers will be denied the minimum support price of their yield as per the Fair Average Quality (FAQ) norms. This apart, rains have resulted in high moisture content in the harvested crops and the farmers will have to dry the crops before selling the produce.
Agriculture Department sources said the area is likely to witness more rain in the next four days and advised farmers not to harvest paddy.
Bumper vegetable yield
The district has witnessed bumper vegetable production this time. Farmers of Koraput, Dasmantpr, Laxmipur, Borrigumma, Potangi, Semiliguda, Nandapur, Lamataput and Potangi areas had cultivated several varieties of vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, beans, tomato and potato in about 5,000 acres of land in the current Kharif season. Markets are now flooded with vegetables and 500 tonnes of vegetables are being sold every day for the last 15 days.
The farmers are also selling their produce in Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh every day. The farmers attributed the bumper yield to favourable climate condition. The district has as many as 11,000 farmers who cultivate vegetables in the hilly terrains of Koraput.