Paddy farmers incur huge loss due to untimely rains

Delayed sowing and late procurement too cited the reasons

Govardhan Reddy is a farmer from Yellareddypet village in Toguta mandal of Siddipet district . On Saturday, evening skies turned cloudy all of sudden and it poured heavily. Toguta mandal headquarters also witnessed heavy rain and it was stated that paddy was washed away at the procurement centre.

The paddy that was brought to the procurement centres by farmers got wet in rain water despite farmers covering the produce with tarpaulin sheets. On Sunday morning at Toguta, a farmer was seen drying paddy.

“Heavy rain water that reached the Mallannasagar bund resulted in the overflowing of the canal constructed at agriculture market and some paddy dried there has washed away. We have no information about the construction of canal and its linking to the canal that flows near the market yard. The issue was taken to the notice of Lok Sabha member K. Prabhakar Reddy who directed the officials to redirect the canal. He also asked the Collector to order an inquiry and compensate farmers who lost their produce.

“We are ready to buy paddy if it is dried,” said Gadila Anitha Lakshma Reddy, chairperson, Market Committee, in a release on Sunday.

“Paddy procurement should have commenced two to three weeks back. Due to the delay, the harvest is arriving at once and it is becoming difficult to deal with the situation. At some place the millers are also asking us to wait for some time to load lorries due to lack of space. In addition, some farmers have sown short duration varieties for which harvesting has started. All these problems coupled with untimely rains resulted in the loss,” said an agriculture officer adding that the farmers who are in dilemma have sown paddy with some delay than their usual timing of two to three weeks in advance and all that harvest is arriving now.

“For some time, farmers were in a dilemma on whether to go for paddy or not as the government said that it would not procure the produce. Later, on some farmers taking up paddy, the ones in dilemma too started sowing it. This delayed the commencement of sowing,” said another officer.