Rains dash farmers hopes yet again

HYDERABAD: The rain god has played the spoilsport with farmers yet again. The incessant rains in the last two days in the coastal districts have not only inundated standing crops in 3.19 lakh hectares, but also shattered the hopes of a bumper crop for the farmers.
While last month's Jal cyclone upset all calculations of an excellent yield, the latest spell of rains has put paid to the last speck of hope the ryots had about a good harvest.The nature's fury came at a time when the paddy farmers were crying foul over the poor response from traders and millers to pick up their stocks.
The rains coupled with heavy gales damaged crop in about 45,000 hectares in Nagayalanka, Kollur and Avanigadda mandals of Krishna district alone. With the Met office indicating rains for another 48 hours, the farmers of Krishna delta have lost all hopes of salvaging their yield this season. "Lord Varuna has been chasing us for the past few months. The rains have destroyed our crops completely this time around," cried Gattaiah, a farmer of Penamalur mandal.
In Guntur, the situation is far worse as crops in 1,70,086 hectares were damaged. Paddy in delta and cotton and chilli in Palnadu region suffered the maximum damage, agriculture joint director Pullareddy said. Repalle, Bhattiprolu, P V Palem, Bapatla and Nagaram mandals were hit hard as thousands of acres of crops were marooned.
Surprisingly, the CCI which promised to launch its commercial operations last week had decided to go slow on the purchases keeping in view of the wet spell. "We cannot pick up the stocks which we cannot sell it," reasoned a senior official of CCI.
The rains affected crops in 40,000 hectares in the far-east Srikakulam district also. While 35,000 ha crops was damaged in West Godavari, nearly 18,800 ha was affected in East Godavari. "In November, the cyclone had wreaked havoc on our crops. Harvest of the paddy crop was minimal from both Godavari districts as we could hardly get 8-10 bags per acre instead of 30 bags," regretted a farmer, Chikkala Rama Rao, of Kajuluru mandal in East Godavari.
He said that the millers did not come forward to buy discoloured paddy from the farmers. "It is a hopeless situation for delta farmers as well as those in the upland areas," he said.