Unseasonal rain, hailstorm lash state, damage standing crops

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Lightning struck two youths at Chikhli in Khedbrahma taluka of Sabarkantha district. They were admitted in a hospital for treatment.

Other parts of Gujarat were experiencing monsoon-like weather for the past three days due to western disturbances, with light to moderate shower occurring in several pockets, according to Met Department. The sky continued to remain cloudy to partially cloudy. The hailstorm impacted life in Kheda, Sabarkantha, and Banaskantha districts also.

IMD has predicted light rain or thundershowers at isolated places in Gujarat, Diu, Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli on 15 March. Weather will be sunny across Gujarat from March 16 onwards, according to an IMD bulletin.

A Dholka resident and taluka panchayat president Jignesh Patel said the hailstorm lasted roughly around half an hour “and it made us feel like being in Kashmir”. “It has caused extensive damage to crop. Nearly half of our standing crop of wheat got destroyed due to this hailstorm today,” Patel who owns 22 bigha or farm land said. The rain was around .075 inch to one inch but damaged the crop and whitened the wheat, he said. “The damage is felt more because we were about to reap the crop,” he said adding, “because of the hailstorm, the weight of wheat was reduced and now, we will not be able to get good price for the crop”.

Congress leader urges CM to pay relief to potato farmers

Congress leader Ahmed Patel has written a letter to Chief Minister Anandiben Patel urging to “intervene and provide relief to potato farmers of Deesa who have suffered huge losses due to unseasonal rains.”

Patel has said that inadequate storage facilities have further aggravated the problem of potato farmers. Due to unseasonal rains and insufficient storage facilities, the prices of the commodity has gone down by 60 per cent. He said that there was bumper potato crop this year due to hard work of farmers but unfortunately this boon had turned into a bane due to poor agriculture infrastructure like storage facilities.

He pointed out that sensing over-supply, the storage owners had already raised the rent by 25 per cent per kg. With no adequate storage space, he said that mounds of potatoes could be seen rotting in open fields.