A vast area of samba has been withering due to the failure of monsoon and a disease, blast, caused by change in climate in the past few weeks.
Farmers say it will be the second consecutive drought season for the paddy farmers, and demand compensation.
Farmers have already been throwing the samba to the cattle as feed in a number of village panchayats, including Vagaivasal, Tennankudi, Vaithoor, and Puthamboor.
R. Nagarajan, vice president of Vaithoor village panchayat, says the farmers relying on the monsoon, had transplanted the ADT 39 variety in these village panchayats.
“Despite three depressions, the district did not realise adequate rainfall, leading to the serious loss in paddy,” he says.
The picture is also bleak in the coastal blocks of Aranthangi, Avudaiyarkovil, and Manamelkudi, which account for large tracts of land under paddy cultivation.
According to official sources, apart from the failure of monsoon, the blast attack had caused extensive damage to the standing crop.
Many farmers had raised the BPT 5204 variety in the coastal areas and the variety is more prone to the blast attack, sources say.
The district has registered a shortfall by 70 per cent this year. About 30,000 hectares of the total 75,000 hectares have been affected by the failure of monsoon, sources add.
