Bhubaneswar/Rayagada/Binjharpur/Padampur/Telkoi: Incessant rain for the last three days have almost damaged paddy and non-paddy crops across the state dealing a blow to the farmers, who will now find it difficult to support their families, let alone pay off their loans.
In this crisis, if the state government does not take steps like loan waivers it is apprehended that many farmers may take extreme steps like suicide.
In Rayagada, paddy and cotton crops have been badly affected by the incessant rains with hectares of farmlands still under water.
Paddy has been cultivated in 47,000 hectares, while non-paddy crops have been raised on 40,000 hectares in the district. Several famers in Rayagada said that they had hurriedly reaped paddy after learning about the rain forecast.
Much of the paddy has been left to rot in the farmlands. They were preparing to carry the paddy to the stockyards, but the rains proved a spoilsport. In Jajpur, ripe paddy is soaking in rainwater in several hectares.
Earlier paddy in several areas under Binjharpur block had been affected by insufficient rainfall. The famers had cut the crops in the farmland with a lot of efforts, but the unseasonal rains spoiled their hopes.
Many farmers are worried about repaying loans they took for the paddy cultivation this year. They lamented that all their money and hard labour invested in the paddy farming have been washed away.
In Mayurbhanj, unseasonal rain have also played spoilsport with paddy in several hectares in tribal-dominated Bangiriposi block.
As harvested paddy is already soaking in rainwater and further rains will only worsen their condition, they said. The situation in most parts of Keonjhar is similar.
Farmers had stocked paddy in their yard after harvesting, but the seeds have germinated following incessant rains. In many places, farmers are showing their damaged paddy to agriculture officials with the hope of receiving compensation.
Agriculture official RK Handa said that paddy farming was good this year, but unseasonal rain have spoiled it. About 80 per cent people in Naugaon block of Jagatsinghpur district depend on agriculture.
They had cultivated paddy in over 7,000 hectares. In September, as they were preparing to harvest their crops, heavy spells of rain left them in a striated condition.
Their ready-to-harvest crops were damaged by unseasonal rain. Farmers’ organisations have demanded immediate steps for assessment of the damage and payment of compensation to the affected farmers.
PNN