ADILABAD: Incessant rainfall this year has dampened the hopes of Adilabad farmers of a bumper crop. With the Central government increasing MSP of cotton from `4,320 to 5,450 per quintal, the farmers were expecting to make a profit this time, but heavy rainfall has put them in a fix. Crops in about 1.27 lakh acres of land have been damaged in the district, of which 96,000 acres of the cotton crop has been damaged.
From June to August 19, an average of 1035.6 mm rainfall has been recorded as against the normal of 744.5 mm. Cotton and soybeans were sown in a majority of the areas and most of them have been damaged.
K Devidas, a farmer of Jainath Mandal, who had sown cotton in his 5 acres of land lost the entire crop to Penganga flood.
“The last two years I suffered losses due to pink bollworm and took all measures this year to control the pest by using pheromone traps and pesticides, but the floods have damaged the entire crop.”
Meanwhile, the opposition parties are demanding the government to provide compensation to farmers.