Farmers of Allalaperi and Vallappanpatti in Kariyapatti are a worried lot as their paddy crop, 70 days to 80 days old, have collapsed following heavy rain coupled with strong wind on Thursday.
They said that at least 150 acres of standing paddy crop have been affected. While some of them claimed that they have insured their crop, some say that they were yet to pay the premium.
Muthu Chinnu (30) of Vallappanpatti said he had raised paddy on nearly seven acres of land. “Apart from rain, we used lift irrigation for raising the crop,” he said. The crop that was sowed on the day of Aadi Perukku came up very well despite a portion of his well collapsing and damaging his motor pump.
“I have been using two borewells, one with free power supply and another without free power for the paddy. Meanwhile, rainfall in the region brought us water for irrigation from Allalaperi tank,” he said.
While Muthu Chinnu has spent around ₹20,000 on electricity bill for one of the borewells, another young farmer, C. Muthuramalingam (41) of Allalaperi has a power bill of around ₹15,000.
“Had I not used the borewell despite the burden of huge power bill, I would have missed the season. But, the one-day rain has ruined all my efforts,” rued Mr. Muthuramalingam.
Paddy crops on around five acres where ear heads have started to sprout collapsed. The rain that started around 7 p.m. continued till 11 p.m.
Stating that farmers who had gone for early sowing on around 100 acres would have met the same ill-fate, he feared that the crop had suffered permanent damage.
“In this condition, we cannot operated harvesting machinery even to realise the hay,” he said.
Farmers said that they have incurred at least ₹17,000 to ₹20,000 expenditure on each acre of paddy.
Joint Director of Agriculture, S. Uthandaraman, said that if the stagnant water drained within two days, the crop could be salvaged.
He said that a field inspection will reveal the gravity of the damage.
However, he said that the farmers had every opportunity to register themselves to insure their crops. Around 12,500 acres of paddy crops have been insured so far, he added.
Virudhunagar had registered 52.50 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours ending at 6 a.m. on Friday. Kariyapatti rain gauge station has recorded 8.2mm, Watrap 5.60 mm and Aruppukottai 1 mm.
