Incessant rains coupled with power crisis have dealt a severe blow to the agriculture sector in North Andhra districts during the Rabi season this year.
Farmers suffered huge losses owing to the torrential rains.
Agriculture officials expect a fall of about 20-25 percent in production, against a fall of 25-35 percent in the rest of the state.
Standing crops in one lakh hectare were damaged in North Coastal Andhra districts due to Nilam cyclone in November, according to preliminary estimates by officials.
Loss is heavy in the case of paddy, sugarcane and betel leaf.
In Visakhapatnam district alone, standing crops on more than 25,000 hectare have been damaged.
“My paddy crop in three acre was damaged completely due to the rains.
I was not even able to produce some rice to feed my family,” lamented N Satyanarayana, a farmer from Anakapalle in Visakhapatnam district.
He said the majority of farmers had left half of the paddy crop in the fields as the government did not come to their rescue.
Incidentally, tanks, reservoirs, and rivers like Vamsadhara, Nagavali and Gosthani are full after the rains, but not many farmers are could make use of it as their crops have already been damaged.
The power crisis too has crippled agricultural operations.
Many rural areas are not receiving the stipulated seven-hour power supply.
Officials said there are 1.
2 lakh power connections for borewells under the Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited.
“Though there is power crisis in the state, uninterrupted power is being supplied to farmers for seven hours in two phases.
The timings are monitored online.
We are not compromising in this regard,” claimed EPDCL chairman and managing director Ahmad Nadeem.
Farmers, on the other hand, refute the officials’ statement.
“We are not able to operate pumpsets due to erratic power cuts every one hour.
Rarely, the supply lasts for more than an hour.
We are forced to spend sleepless nights near the pumpsets as power supply is disrupted frequently during the night,” A Mohan, a farmer, said.
Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham Visakhapatnam district president RV Jagga Rao said farmers in areas like Anakapalle, Payakaraopeta and Chodavaram, are suffering due to unpredictable timings of power supply.
“Farmers in these areas depend largely on borewells.
Power is not being supplied continuously for seven hours.
Further, the officials change the timings every week,” he said