NAGAPATTINAM/CUDDALORE: Earlier it was drought, now it is rain. The vagaries of nature are on full display and the victims are farmers who are devastated as whatever crop they managed to nurture in an otherwise lacklustre samba season is about to go waste.
With heavy downpour lashing the northern taluks of tail-end Cauvery delta for the past two days, as much as 80 per cent of paddy fields awaiting harvest are reportedly inundated. With agriculture department yet to assess the damage, farmers in the northern region of Nagapattinam district are claiming that close to 40,000 hectares of paddy are submerged.
“Around 40,000 hectares of paddy in Mayiladuthurai, Kollidam, and Sirkazhi have been affected by the rain, which has stalled harvest. There is also a risk of as much as 50 percent loss due to high moisture content affecting yield,” said R Pandurangan, district president of Tamil Uzhavar Periyakkam. These farmers risk an even bigger loss, as the crop that withstood the drought managed to do so with borewell water after the monsoon failed and Cauvery water did not reach them.
Farmers in Nallur, Edamanal, Semmangudi near Sirkazhi and Mayiladuthurai towns added that if the rains continued, the ADT-38 and ADT-46 medium period paddy crops in the northern parts of Nagapattinam will be completely destroyed. After the inspection for droughts by State and Central teams, it perhaps is time for another team, this time to assess rain damage, Pandurangan added.
It is not rosy even for those who managed to complete harvest before the rains.
At the regulated market in Vriddhachalam in Cuddalore, about 15,000 sacks of paddy were soaked in the rain, leading to fears among farmers that the traders will offer only lesser price.
“Harvest had begun after Pongal festival, and until January 25, about 20, 000 sacks of paddy were to the market. But only half of them have been procured due to procedural problems, while the rest has been kept on the premises. Though there are tarpaulins to cover the sacks, the water has soaked our paddy,” lamented a local farmer.
P Vinayagamurthy, who heads Lower-Anicut Farmers Association, said the sudden rains have kept the farmers on tenterhooks. “Many farmers had borewell facilities to overcome the drought. But now, the harvesting vehicles can’t get into paddy fields due to stagnating water.
Some farmers, who had already begun harvesting a few days ago, dumped the harvested paddy in fields itself. Before they take their produce to the market, rains have soaked them. It would be of no use once it sprouts.”
The situation is similar in Villupuram, where sugarcanes were soaked in the rain. Farmers are worried that the cane will get spoiled if it is not taken for grinding in a few days.