The incessant rains lashing East Godavari district in the last two days have brought bad news to paddy farmers. At a time when majority of them were making arrangements to reap their kharif crop, these rains have dented their hopes, causing damage to the standing crop in most parts of the district. Farmers said even if they salvage this harvest, their returns are likely to be lower because traders are sure to turn their noses up at ‘discoloured’ paddy. In all, paddy was raised on 2.3 lakh hectares in the district during the kharif season and crop-cutting has been completed in 91,699 hectares. According to agriculture officials, some 33,132 hectares are inundated and the crop has been damaged in another 9,141 hectares.

“Farmers can save the damaged crop by opting for bundling. Similarly, they can protect the grain from being discoloured by sprinkling salt water on it,” Joint Director of agriculture N. Vijay Kumar advised.

Farmer leaders dispute these figures, however, and say the actual loss is much higher. “Paddy fields in all of Konaseema are under water. The crop loss will be much higher than the figures released by the Agriculture Department,” said Kovvuri Trinadha Reddy, general secretary of the Andhra Pradesh State Farmers Water Management Committees Association.

Due to the sudden rains, farmers have switched to manual cutting of the crop instead of using harvesters. “The labour charges are already high at Rs. 750 per day per head. If labour demand increases, it could go up to Rs. 1,000,” said Adabala Satyanarayana, a farmer from Karapa in Kakinada rural mandal.

Farmers are already dissatisfied with the minimum support price for paddy announced by the government. Now their worry is about a possible drop in MSP on the pretext of discolouration.

“ We want the State government to announce an ex gratia of Rs. 20,000 per acre for the inundated crop,” said Tatipaka Madhu, general secretary of the CPI’s district unit.

Source - http://www.thehindu.com/