ONGOLE: Crops in 88,374.68 hectares of agriculture lands in Prakasam district were damaged in Cyclone Nivar. Of this, 9,987.65 hectares are horticulture crops and in the remaining 78,387.34 hectares, 17 varieties of agriculture crops were raised.
This was stated in the report submitted by the district administration to the State government after two weeks of field-level crop loss enumeration. Around 1.29 lakh farmers lost their crops and they are eligible to get a compensation of Rs 103.03 crore. Among the damaged crops, black gram was the most affected — 33,936 hectares, causing losses to 44,388 farmers.
Cotton crop was damaged in 12,434 hectares and 20,298 farmers were affected. Bengal gram in 11,869 hectares was damaged, affecting 15,173 farmers. Red gram in 6,581 hectares, paddy in 6,552 hectares, yellow gram in 4,132 hectares and other crops in an extent of 2,881.23 hectares were also damaged in the cyclone-triggered heavy rains in the district.
Coming to horticulture crops, chilli in 9,234.32 hectares was damaged, affecting 16,035 farmers. Vegetables, mango orchards, papaya, tomato and other horticulture crops were also damaged in hundreds of hectares. A total of 17,413 horticulture farmers lost their crops worth Rs 15.23 crore in the cyclone.
“After two weeks of field-level crop loss enumeration, we have submitted the final report to the State government. As per the government norms, we have considered only the damages of 33 per cent and above. The government will pay compensation to the affected farmers by month-end,” said Agriculture Joint Director Dr PV Sreerama Murthy.