THANJAVUR: The sporadic rains over two days brought some solace to farmers in parts of the district whose standing crops have been deprived of Cauvery water through irrigation canals. Several parts of the district witnessed rain on Monday and Tuesday.
“The rain spells will help farmers whose kuruvai, samba and thaladi crops will be ready for harvest in another two weeks,” said R Sukumaran, a farmer. While crops like banana and betel leaf cultivated in areas like Tiruvaiyaru will benefit from the rains, harvesting of kuruvai paddy in areas like Tirukkattupalli and Tiruvaiyaru may be affected, said Rajendran of Tiruvaiyaru.
It might be noted that kuruvai paddy was cultivated on 78,486 hectares across the district, of which harvesting is complete in about 55,000 hectares. Samba and thalady paddy has been cultivated in around 25,000 hectares so far using groundwater.
In the 24-hour period that ended at 8.30 AM on Tuesday, Tiruvaiyaru recorded the highest rainfall at 31 mm. The rainfall recorded in other places (in mm) are: Neivasal Thenpathy, (29); Vettikkadu (26); Thanjavur (24); Tirukkattupalli (20); Ayyampettai (18); Pattukkottai (13); Vallam (9); Kallanai (7); and Budalur (6).