Many parts of the district received moderate to heavy rain for the third consecutive day on Tuesday, inflicting severe damage to maize, paddy and green gram crops besides, some other agricultural and horticultural crops in several mandals in the district.
Wyra mandal recorded the highest rainfall of 62.4 mm, followed by Bayyaram mandal (55.4 mm), Konijerla mandal (53.4 mm) in the last 24 hours ending at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday. The district received an average of 25.5 mm rainfall.
According to official sources, unseasonal downpour damaged agricultural crops mainly – chilli, green gram and paddy in over 430 hectares in the district.
Bonakal mandal bore the brunt of the intermittent spell of unseasonal rains as standing crops in an extent of 185 hectares were damaged due to heavy rains in the past three days, sources added.
Mango orchards and banana crops reportedly suffered extensive damages under the impact of incessant rains in Aswaraopet, Dammapeta and other mandals .
Huge quantity of harvested chilli and maize was damaged due to the unexpected heavy rains in Dammapeta, Kusumanchi, Tirumalayapalem, Yellendu and various other mandals in the district, sources said.
Meanwhile, unseasonal downpour disrupted coal production in the open cast projects in Yellendu area of Singareni coal fields on Tuesday.
Heavy rains also hampered work at various brick kilns in Khammam division.
The production activity came to a standstill in some of the kilns as rainwater stagnated at the worksite causing severe hardships to the workers, sources said.
The preliminary reports indicated loss of crops in an extent of 434 hectares due to the incessant unseasonal rains that lashed the district in the last three days, said V B Bhaskar Rao, Joint Director, Agriculture, Khammam.
In all 735 farmers were hit by the latest spell of unseasonal rains in the district so far.
Sangareddy Staff Reporter adds: Heavy rain was registered in Medak district on Tuesday resulting in huge loss to farmers. It was reported that there was huge loss for mango and vegetable crops as well. At some places, the rain was accompanied by thunderstorm and gales.
Jinnarm reported 40.4 mm rainfall followed by Zaheerabad 38.4 mm, Narsapur 27.8 mm, Gajwel 23.8 mm, Mulugu 23.6 mm, Regod 20 and Ramayampet 15 mm.
Zaheerbad, Gajwel, Chegunta, Daultabad and some other areas witnessed rain with thunderstorms.
Nalgonda Staff Reporter adds: Standing Paddy crop in as many as 6,740 hectares was damaged while the mango, lemon and sweet lemon and other orchards were damaged in about 900 hectares since the district continued to receive heavy rains for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.
Speaking to The Hindu , Joint Director, Agriculture, B. Narasing Rao, said according to primary estimations the paddy crop loss was put at 6,740 hectares in the district. Maize in eight hectares was also damaged.
However, the Agriculture officer said that they were still estimating the crop loss. The harvested paddy that has brought to procurement agencies and market yards by farmers was also inundated in the rain water at various places.
Meanwhile, Horticulture Officer P. Ananta Reddy said that the horticulture farmers also suffered heavy loss.
Particularly, the mango farmers suffered huge loss. As many as 36 mandals out of 59 witnessed rain during the past 24 hours. Tirumalgiri mandal received 50.4 mm rainfall, while Gundala and Bommalaramaram received 46.4 mm and 40 mm rainfall respectively. The average rainfall in the district was 11.2 mm.
Warangal Special Correspondent adds: Sudden rains accompanied by heavy gales tuned the farmers’ world upside down across the district. The crops which were at harvesting stage were destroyed, mango orchards too suffered huge loss and paddy and maize were soaked in rain water. According to reports reaching here from different mandals, thousands of quintals of harvested crops such as maize, turmeric and chilli stocked at market yards and being dried up at fields soaked in rain water were damaged.
Paddy in 52 hectares and maize in 26 hectares was damaged due to unseasonal rain in Govindaraopet mandal. Here a total of 125 farmers suffered losses due to rain related damage, said Assistant Director agricultural A. Rama Rao.
The crop loss in other mandals was yet to be enumerated Vegetable growers too were affected. Mango orchards in about 700 acres in Bachannpet, Wardhannapet, Thorrur and other mandals sustained huge losses due to heavy winds. The farmers demanded the agricultural officials to act swiftly in assessing the crop damage.
Meanwhile, the district recorded an average rain of 14 mm rain with 49 mandals of the 51 mandals receiving the rain during the 24 hours.
Highest rainfall of 42.4 mm was recorded in Bachannapet mandal while usually dry Jangaon mandal received 30.2 mm rain and Bhupalpalli received lowest rainfall of 2.6 mm.
The normal rainfall for April was 15 mm.
The officials of agriculture market at Kesamudram declared holiday for the market on Monday due to rains.
CPI (M) leader S. Vasudeva Reddy demanded that the State government pay a compensation of Rs. 20,000 per acre to farmers affected by unseasonal rains in
Karimnagar Special Correspondent adds: Unseasonal rains followed by gales damaged the standing crops in 10,770 hectares in 14 mandals in Karimnagar district, according to preliminary reports by the Agriculture Department authorities.
Against a total of 57 mandals in the district, the rains wreaked havoc in Chigurumamidi, Saidapur, Jagtial, Mallapur, Ibrahimpatnam, Metpally, Kathalapur, Korutla, Mallial, Pegadapalli, Sarangapur, Medipalli, Gollapalli and Raikal mandals.
Til was damaged in 5,238 hectares, followed by paddy in 3,358 hectares, bajra in 1,565 hectares, maize in 598 hectares and green gram in 10 hectares.
Besides, the Horticulture Department authorities submitted report stating that the mango, papaya, banana and other fruit crops were damaged in 12,236 hectares.
Around 55 houses and a few cattle were also damaged in the rains. In the meantime, Collector Neetu Kumari Prasad had instructed the Agriculture Department authorities to expedite the process of assessment of crop damages on war-footing by deploying additional staff for the enumeration work.
