THANJAVUR: Torrential rains that continued on Tuesday in Thanjavur district dashed the residual hope of salvaging a little from their samba paddy crop. The farmers of the district raised samba, thalady crop in 1.35 lakh hectares. The comfortable storage of water in Mettur reservoir buoyed their hope of good harvest during samba, thalady season.
However, the heavy rains during the Burevi rains dented their hope to an extent and crops in 8,500 hectares were damaged and in significant areas the yield had gone down below 50 per cent. The farmers who had cultivated in the rest of the area were still hopeful of a good harvest. However, the unseasonal rains during the month of January had completely dashed their hope.
Though the average rainfall for January in the district is only 10 mm, the average rainfall recorded during January till the morning of Tuesday has been 172 mm. According to official sources, the paddy crop in around 40,000 hectares which was ready for harvest ahead of the Pongal festival, has been badly damaged. Similarly, crops in 50,000 hectares which would be ready for harvest in January end were also badly affected.
The farmers say they had spent upto `75,000 per hectare and wanted compensation for the crop loss. Official sources said the enumeration for crop loss is on. V Veerasenan of Ponnavaryankottai said the crop has been completely damaged and even if the crop was harvested, farmers could not get even 10 per cent of average yield.
Hence, the government should pay compensation to all farmers who cultivated paddy crop this season, based on the cultivation record of the village administrative officers instead of fresh enumeration, he added.