Deputy Director of the Horticulture G. Manjunath told The Hindu that the affected crops including fruit bearing trees planted in the previous years and the one which were planted this year. The coverage of horticulture crops this year was less than 50 per cent of the targeted area and the yield from the planted crops would be drastically reduced due to the moisture stress and stunted growth. He said as against the target of 5,304.40 hectare fixed for the current year for horticulture crops, the actual coverage of the listed crops by the department was 2,033.20 hectares. Apart from this non-listed horticulture crops have been sown in another 5,000 hectares in the district. Mr. Manjunath said that as per the preliminary estimate, the horticulture crop in 3,388 hectare has suffered damages due to lack of rainfall and moisture stress. The department has taken up a detailed survey of the crop condition and extent of the exact loss would be known by this month end. The condition of the lime, sweet orange, pomegranate and mango in the sown area was average and the banana and papaya plantations had witnessed stunted growth due to moisture stress leading to low yield and delayed fruit setting. The worst affected was the vegetables and all the notified vegetable crops including tomato, chilli, onion, brinjal. Source - http://www.freshplaza.com