The untimely rains that lashed the district have caused great misery to farmers.
Paddy and horticulture farmers, in particular, have suffered great losses.
Paddy cultivation has been reduced to 1.44 lakh hectares this year compared to 2.10 hectares last Rabi, due to drought conditions.
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Paddy fields dried up in thousands of hectares in March and April as several bore wells dried up when the groundwater table receded.
When the rest of the paddy was ready for harvest, the district started witnessing rains which damaged standing crops and paddy that was brought to procurement centres.
The rains that lashed the district a week ago damaged paddy in over 15,000 hectares and horticulture crops in about 1,000 hectares,.
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As the harvested paddy that was brought to Suryapet market was inundated due to lack of proper facilities, the farmers ransacked furniture in the agriculture market and staged a rasta roko on NH-65 causing a traffic jam on Friday.
The farmers again staged a protest on Saturday before the market demanding that the State government purchase the wet paddy at MSP.
Speaking to The Hindu , a farmer, K. Lingaiah, held the State government responsible for the loss since officials had failed to provide facilities at the market to protect their produce.
The Suryapet market yard alone has received about 60,000 bags of paddy for which middlemen are offering Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 less than MSP, citing inferior quality as the reason.
Irate farmers warned that they would continue their protest if officials failed to offer MSP.
Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, rains accompanied by gales, lashed parts of the district particularly in Suryapet and Miryalaguda divisions. Trees and electricity poles were uprooted due to strong winds that swept the area on Saturday evening. Several villages lost electricity connection, which Transco officials are trying to restore. And again, the paddy in 4,000 hectares was damaged in the past couple of days.
Meanwhile, the horticulture crops, particularly mango, suffered immense damage.
According to horticulture officials, mango orchards in over 500 hectares were damaged, apart from other orchards and vegetable crops.