Paddy yield comes down drastically in central Travancore

Crop damage due to unseasonal rain a key reason

Hammered by back-to-back spells of unseasonal rain in April and May, paddy yield has reported a drastic decline across the northern and upper Kuttanad regions this time.

When procurement of punja crop drew to a close, the volume of procurement in Kottayam came down by at least 16,000 tonnes with the crop in over 850 ha of land being washed out completely. The total yield during the season stands around 46,800 tonnes.

In Pathanamthitta

The situation in the upper Kuttanad belt of Pathanamthitta too looks grim with the yield down to 8,882 tonnes from 12,083 tonnes procured during the same season last year.

According to officials, crop in 72 polders across Kottayam was completely lost due to the unseasonal rain. “The summer rain came at a time when the standing crop was almost ready for harvest. Besides halting the harvest operations, the rain also caused waterlogging and bund breaches across the region, affecting crop quality,” says Smitha, paddy marketing officer, Kottayam.

While the highest volume of paddy has been procured from Thiruvarppu grama panchayat, the share of the Changanassery region, which had reported widespread damage, has come down sharply.

Adding to the farmers’ woes during the period is the delay in sorting out the issues over procurement with rice mills. The delay in procurement had forced the farmers to keep paddy in the open for several days, raising the moisture content in the crop, leading to hard bargaining by the millers.

In Pathanamthitta, 3,113 tonnes of paddy was procured from 951 farmers in Peringara panchayat in upper Kuttanad.

The disruptions caused by the summer rain, meanwhile, have upended the farming calendar of the region, making the farmers even more vulnerable to the climatic variations.