Banana trees, sugarcane and coconut trees standing on hundreds of acres of land in Edappadi and Kolathur blocks of the district were damaged in heavy gale that struck on Friday.

The downpour accompanied by gale received on Friday uprooted the banana trees standing on a large area in the Edappadi and surrounding villages of Koneripatti, Kottayur and Poomuniyur.

The farmers had raised kadali and rasthali varieties and these have suffered severe damage.

Entire cropIn Kolathur block, banana crop has been raised in about 500 acres in Govindapadi and surrounding villages. The banana crop harvest has just commenced.

The sudden heavy rain, accompanied by strong winds on Friday uprooted more than 50,000 trees standing on about 50 acres in the villages of Vella Karattur, Thinnapatti and Pannavadi.

The banana farmers of Vattaramapalayam near Thevur, Kaveripatti, Mottur, Vattrampalayam and Sendrayanur, all near Mettur, suffered a similar fate.

Venkatachalam of Govindappadi village had raised the banana crop by spending about Rs. 300,000. The crop this season was in very good condition. With just a week left for harvesting, tragedy struck and the entire farm has been destroyed.

A cross-section of the banana farmers say that they will be suffering heavy loss and will not be able to meet the expenditure involved in raising the crop during the next season.

They demanded that State Horticulture Department officials take the initiative to conduct a study of the damaged crop and recommend adequate compensation to the banana farmers without any delay. The Department should commence loss assessment exercise with immediate effect, they said.

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/