THANJAVUR/TIRUVARUR: Widespread rain across Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts lodged harvest-ready crops in the field and brought loss to farmers.
Rain accompanied by heavy winds lashed the districts starting on Monday evening and few parts of Kumbakonam witnessed it on Tuesday evening. In Thanjavur district, kuruvai crop is cultivated on 58,948 hectares, of which 40,185 hectares are harvest-ready.
"Farmers have to spend twice for harvesting the fallen crops. The rent for the belt-type harvesting machine rules now around Rs 2,200 per hour. If the crop was dry, crop in one acre could be harvested in an hour. Now, it will take two hours since crop is wet", said R Sukumaran a farmer from Kakkarai.
One S Vimalnathan, a resident of Swamimalai, added that there would be a significant loss in the yield and additional expenses for drying the harvested wet paddy.
The harvest of kuruvai paddy was not only affected but cotton also. "Plucking cotton is now difficult. As water is stagnated in the fields, transplantation cannot be taken up," said P Masilamani, a farmer from Tiruvarur and State deputy secretary of Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association (AIKS).
Crops in many areas, including Ganapathy Agraharam, Manalmedu, Kabisthalam, Saliyamangalam, Kovilur, Arulmozhipettai were lodged in the field. Water in the fields could not drain as water kept flowing in the rivers and canals. In some places, electric poles fell down due to heavy winds. More than 20 villages around Ayyampettai did not get electricity supply due to snapped power lines. Moreover, with the procurement at DPCs stopped for finalising the account for the procurement year, which runs from October 1 to September 30 every year, the paddy brought by the farmers are heaped at the centres. As the moisture content increases with the rains, farmers usually dry the paddy during the day time when there is no rain.
Meanwhile, during the 24 hours that ended at 8.30 am on Tuesday, Needamangalam recorded the highest rainfall of 52 mm. The rain fall recorded in other places (in mm): Kodavasal-50, Neivasal Thenpathy-48, Tiruvarur-48, Vettikkadu-44, Mannargudi-42, Nannilam-37, Pattukkootai-34, Ayyampettai-32, Kumbakonam-30, Papanasam-29, Madukkur-27, Adirampattinam-25, Muthupettai-24, Thanjavur-23, Anaikkarai-23, Thanjavur-23, Tiruvidaimarudur-19, Valangaiman-18, Tiruvaiyaru-16.