D. Ashok is a farmer from Meligiripet village of Sadashivapet mandal. He had leased about 10 acres by paying ₹10,000 per acre, and hoping to get a bumper harvest, invested another ₹2 lakh on cotton. But, his hopes were dashed as all his crops are in deep water after heavy rains in Telangana.
“There is nothing left. The cotton balls are completely damaged. Water is still there in the field and it is cloudy again. What should I do now?” asked Ashok.
In distress
Not only him, thousands of farmers in erstwhile Medak district are in serious distress and unable to think about tomorrow. The district is worst-hit after heavy rainfall for three days.
In Medak district, paddy was damaged in about 10,000 acres followed by cotton in 15,000 acres. In Siddipet district, paddy in 32,000 acres, cotton in 29,000 acres, redgram and vegetables in about 1,700 acres got damaged.
In Sangareddy district, the loss was put at cotton in 99,000 acres, paddy 9,000 acres, redgram 20,000 acres, sugarcane 6,000 acres and soya 3,000 acres. In several areas, crops were almost ready for harvest.
Major loss
Cotton was lost in a total of 1,43,000 acres followed by paddy damaged in a total of 41,000 acres.
Paddy yield will be around 25 quintals per acre and per quintal price is ₹1,850. This will put the total loss at ₹189.62 crore
Similarly in cotton, the average yield is being put at eight quintals per acre by agriculture officials and per quintal price is ₹5,600. So, the loss was estimated at ₹640.64 crore.
The total loss is estimated to be around ₹829 crore. This is in addition to loss of crops such as soyabean, red gram and vegetables.
