1L farmers lost crops to unseasonal rain

NASHIK: The unseasonal rain and hailstorms that lashed the district in the past seven months has cost dear to nearly one lakh farmers with 42,205 hectares. The unseasonal showers in 18 days have cost the farmers their quarterly or annual income.
Nashik district reported rain and hailstorms in every month after September last year, when the monsoon withdraws from the region.The rainfall after October is considered unseasonal by the revenue department.
Revenue department officials said 97,324 farmers have lost their crops as per the standards of assessment of damage to the crops in the fields. These farmers have 42,205 hectares of agriculture land, which was affected because of the unseasonal rainfall.
“The highest damage was reported in March, when 86,516 farmers with 36,264 hectares of land were affected. This number is huge by any standard,” said an official from the district collectorate.
Large and small farmers were equally affected due to the vagaries of nature. “The large farmers could have taken extra measures to protect the crop if the district had not been facing drought. But the situation in which the rain and hailstorms attacked the crops, even they were helpless,” said Shankar Khaire-Patil, resident of Lakhalgaon village on the outskirts of Nashik city.
Niphad taluka followed by Dindori taluka has the most irrigated area and known for crops taken through the year, while other talukas of Baglan, Chandwad, Malegaon are drought-prone. Most of them have orchards of pomegranates besides cash crops like onion.
“Nashik, Dindori and Niphad talukas have grape cultivation and the drought-prone areas have pomegranate orchards. While the treatment given to grapes may be more expensive, the treatment to pomegranates equally is costly. In both cases, the loss of orchards means the loss for the farmers for a couple of years,” said Manohar Aher, farmer from Chandwad.
The farmers, who cultivate regular crops, have lost the income for the quarter. Others with orchards have lost the income for two years. “The crop rotation is of three month and hence the farmers have the chance of taking another crop. But agriculture activity is restricted during the summer season and lack of availability of water. Farmers, who have lost their orchards, will require another year before they can plant afresh,” Khandu Kardile, resident of Kotamgaon, Nashik taluka said.