Cyclone Gaja damaged banana plants on 20,000 acres of land in the delta districts, causing a Rs 500crore loss to farmers.
“The total crop loss which was waiting for harvest during the Pongal season has been estimated to be over Rs 500 crore for the banana farmers alone as the plants were either totally uprooted or broken in the middle and blown away by the heavy wind,” said National Research Centre for Banana (Trichy) director Dr S Uma on Thursday.
The damaged banana plants included mono-crop of banana as well as banana intercropped in coconut and other perennial crop orchards raised in the districts of Trichy, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Karur, Dindigul, Sivagangai and parts of Theni.
“It is most unfortunate that the damage was caused to the traditional banana varieties which had been cultivated and maintained by small and marginal farmers in the Cauvery basin and in Sirumalai areas of the Lower Palani hills,” she said.
The NRCB has come forward to extend its helping hands to the aggrieved farmers by providing technical support for quick re-establishment of the banana plantations and to recommend suitable remedial measures to the extent of damage caused.
The ICAR-NRCB, Trichy volunteered to directly visit the neighbouring areas and also join hands with the district administrations of cyclone-affected areas in crop loss assessment and also framing suitable measures. Besides, the ICAR-NRCB has planned to collect healthy planting materials, including tissue culture plants, from all over the state. They would be distributed to the affected farmers.
A team of scientists is put into the task of collecting information on the loss of rare varieties so that the same could be rejuvenated from the germplasm stock being maintained at the NRCB. This would help the NRCB extend all possible help in quick rehabilitation and morale-boosting efforts to the farming community, she added.
Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
