TIRUPPUR: Farmers from the Amaravathi New Ayacut irrigation area have urged the state government to provide compensation for around 3800 acres of paddy crops, which allegedly got damaged due to a disease outbreak, in Madathukulam and Dharapuram taluks of Tiruppur district. However, agricultural department officials have ruled out a disease outbreak and attributed the crop damage to climate conditions.
M M Veerappan, taluk secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, said, “Tiruppur and Karur districts have 54,637 acres of agricultural land dependent on Amaravathi Dam. It includes around 25,000 acres of farmlands irrigated by the new ayacut. Paddy has been cultivated in about 5,000 acres under the new ayacut in Madathukulam and Dharapuram taluks.”
“I cultivated ADT-37 paddy on my four acres 22 days ago. It takes 105-110 days to mature as it is a short-duration rice variety. I sprayed pesticides on the crops five days ago. However, my crops got scorched after that. Initially, I thought it was because of the pesticide I used. Then I found that other farmers, who cultivated different varieties of paddy and used different pesticides, too faced the same issue. We believe that it may be due to a disease outbreak, though we don’t know which disease,” he added.
Veerappan said he had spent Rs 30,000 to cultivate paddy on each acre. “I have incurred a total loss of Rs 1.2 lakh. So, the state government should order the officials concerned to immediately inspect the region to ascertain the cause of crop damage,” he urged.
Around 3,800 acres of paddy crops in Madathukulam and Dharapuram taluks have borne the brunt of a similar disease outbreak, said S R Madhusoodhanan, District President of Tamil Nadu Farmers Association. He has demanded that the state government immediately compensate the farmers for their loss. He added that each farmer had spent between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per acre.
A senior official from the agriculture department in Tiruppur said, “We inspected the affected paddy fields on Saturday. It is not a disease outbreak. The climate conditions prevailing over the past few days may have caused the crop damage. The crops are likely to recover once the weather improves. We will train the farmers on how to tackle this issue next week.”