KHAMMAM / KARIMNAGAR / HYDERABAD: The untimely hailstorm that lashed the State on Thursday and in the early hours of Friday left a trail of devastation over 20,000 acres of maize, green gram, papaya and mango and other crops, most of which were in flowering and ripening stages.
According to Agriculture department officials, over 18,826 acres of maize, farmed by around 1,930 farmers, was damaged in the erstwhile Khammam district alone.
Kothagudem district horticulture officer J Mariyanna said that papaya crops worth Rs 10 lakh were damaged in Bhadradri- Kothagudem district. Chilli and paddy farmers also suffered losses too. The damage was comparatively less in Karimnagar district, with maize and paddy flattened in several places. The untimely rain, accompanied by gales, led to a large number of mango trees being affected at Madapur village of Ganneruvaram mandal.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy on Friday reminded that scientists have been advising farmers to harvest their Rabi crop a month in advance to avoid the risk of their being damaged by unseasonal rains coupled with strong winds and hailstorms, a situation recurring every March and April.
Niranjan Reddy, along with Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, Rythu Bandhu Samithi president Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Agriculture Commissioner Raghunandan Rao and others inspected the agricultural and horticultural crops in Vikarabad district that were damaged due to Thursday’s unseasonal rain and hailstorm.
Niranjan Reddy said that farmers in some parts of Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Bodhan and Suryapet have been following the advice of scientists about advancing their crop cycle by a month, and that in all workshops farmers were informed the same by agricultural officials.
According to the minister, cabbage, onion, maize, watermelon and capsicum crops were largely damaged in the 13 villages under Mominpet and Marpally mandals of Vikarabad district affected by the hailstorm. Interestingly, Niranjan Reddy said that he was yet to receive reports of crop damage in other parts of the State.