Loss of paddy crops almost total in Ramnad

The drought has triggered severe drinking water crisis in many villages, says District Monitoring Officer

Minister for Information and Technology M. Manikandan, Chandrakant B. Kamble, District Monitoring Officer and Collector S. Natarajan inspecting affected paddy filed at Ariyakudi in Ramanathapuram district on Saturday.Photo:L_Balachandar [with report]

Displaying withered paddy crops, farmers made tearful plea to bail them out from the severe drought crisis as Minister for Information Technology M. Manikandan and District Monitoring Officer Chandrakant B. Kamble made an assessment of the drought situation in the district on Saturday.

After the district administration sent a detailed report about the drought situation and failure of crops, the Minister and Mr. Kamble, accompanied by Collector S. Natarajan and officials from agriculture, horticulture and revenue departments visited the affected paddy fields and listened to the grievances of farmers.

“Paddy was cultivated in 1.22 lakh hectares in the district and the loss was almost total,” Mr. Manikandan said adding the failure of north east monsoon had also badly hit the crops including chillies, pulses, oil seeds and millets.

Most of the paddy farmers had insured their crops and the government would help all the affected farmers with adequate compensation, he said. Mr. Kamble, Principal Secretary, Tamil Nadu Transport Department, appointed as monitoring officer for the district said the ‘Ground Truth’ revealed that the drought due to the failure of the monsoon had severely affected the district and the loss of paddy crops was almost total.

The drought has also triggered severe drinking water crisis in many villages and the district administration has been asked to accord top priority to address the problem, he said.

“We have already reviewed the situation with the Collector and officials,” he said and assured to protect the interest of the rural population. Mr. Natarajan said paddy was cultivated in 1.22 lakh hectares, majority in rainfed areas and this year’s drought has taken a heavy toll as crops in 1.21 lakh hectares had withered.

The district, which received an average rainfall of 501.6 mm during the north east monsoon, had received only 173.29 mm, recording 65 per cent deficit, he also said.

There was also drastic 58 per cent deficit in annual rainfall from January to December during 2015, he said adding the district had received 348 mm rainfall against the normal rainfall of 827 mm in the year.

Millets were cultivated in 5,571 hectares and crops in 5,229 hectares had withered, he said. Chilli, the next major crop in the district, was cultivated in 15,022 hectares and till now, the crops in 7,217 hectares have withered, he added.