Farmers, who have cultivated paddy and plantain in a few areas of the district, are starring at loss as the stagnant rainwater has played spoilsport.
Farmers of Kulaiyankarisal, Korampallam, Aththimarappatti and Pottalkaadu, who would go for paddy cultivation in ‘pisanam’ season if storage level in the Papanasam, Manimuthar and Servalar dams is satisfactory, could not cultivate the crop last year owing to poor rainfall.
Moreover, the yield of plantain they had cultivated in their farms was also poor owing to paucity of water.
This year they are facing a ‘problem of plenty’ as water is stagnating in their fields where they have cultivated plantain and paddy on over 2,000 acres. Since the continuous downpour has caused water stagnation in the fields, the paddy and plantain saplings, all submerged in water for over a week, have started rotting away.
To make things worse, the farmers, who stopped irrigation ever since the rain started, could not drain the stagnant water from the fields owing to water stagnation everywhere. Moreover, intermittent drizzle and the moist condition prevailing in this region facilitate decaying of the crop.
Meanwhile, a section of the residents of Auto Colony in Chidambara Nagar 4th Street staged a road roko for a while on Saturday demanding the draining of the stagnant rainwater in their area. The agitation was given up after the police and the Corporation officials pacified the protesters with the promise that they would take immediate action.
