The rain that lashed the district on Sunday night has damaged the standing crop, mainly grapes.

According to preliminary reports, Rs. 200 crore worth grapes have suffered loss in the district.

The grape farms of Vijayapura and Muddebihal taluk have been largely hit due to the rains.

This year, according to the horticulture department, grape has been cultivated in over 10,000 hectare land of the district, of which, the rain has damaged the standing crop in around 2,000 hectare land.

Nearly 12,000 tonnes of grape has damaged extensively, the crop could not be used even to prepare raisins, according to the farmers.

It may be noted that the untimely rain coupled with hailstones last year, had damaged raisins extensively, leading to fall in price of the commodity. Due to this, raisin and grape farmers had suffered heavy losses.

Last year, the total agriculture loss was estimated at Rs. 1,050 crore, of which, the share of horticulture was about Rs. 650 crore.

The government had released Rs. 131 crore for compensation, later the district administration submitted report demanding Rs. 137 crore additional for giving compensation to remaining farmers. However, the government is yet to release the funds.

Meanwhile, the officials of Horticulture Department claimed that this year, the damage is less compared to last year, since over 70 per cent harvesting of grape crop is already over.

Following the rains, the Deputy Commissioner, D. Ranadeep has directed the officials of Revenue Agriculture and Horticulture to speed up the survey work to assess the damage and submit the report.

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