Karimnagar: Heavy rains and flooding over the past week have submerged crops, causing huge loss to farmers in the undivided Karimnagar district.
The 16 mandals in the district are divided into 76 clusters and four agriculture divisions – namely, Karimnagar, Manakondur, Choppadandi and Huzurabad. Around 20,000 acres of land on which paddy, cotton, maize, pulses and other crops were cultivated has been damaged due to the rains. Around 6,000 farmers faced the loss.
Rajanna Sircilla: In this Kharif season, farmers cultivated various crops on about 2.41 lakh acres in the district. Paddy was on 1.65 lakh acres, cotton crop on 69,225 acres, pulses on 5,113 acres and other crops on 2,244 acres. Of these, the paddy crop over 590 acres and cotton over 60 acres were damaged in villages under Sircilla municipality.
In Mustabad mandal, about 400 acres of paddy crop, 85 acres of cotton crop and 30 acres of other crops were damaged. In Boinpally mandal, about 265 acre of paddy and about 40 acres of cotton was damaged. In Thangallapally mandal, about 350 acres of paddy and 35 acres of cotton crop were damaged, whereas in Rudrangi mandal, crops cultivated on about 70 acres were damaged.
Peddapalli: In Manthani constituency, it is estimated that paddy crops cultivated on 1,410 acres in various villages and cotton on 277 acres were damaged as also other crops on 50 acres. In Odela, Kalva Srirampur, Mutharam, Anthargam and Palakurti mandals, around 450 acres of cotton crop and around 5 acres of paddy crop were damaged.
Farmers of Khanapur mandal staged a dharna on the Manthani-Kataram road, seeking compensation for the crop loss. The loss was caused due to the flooding of the backwater areas by water released from Annaram barrage, they said.
Jagtial: In several villages in Jagtial municipality, crops cultivated on about 538 acres were damaged, causing a huge loss to around 310 farmers.
In Dharmapuri mandal, crops on 180 acres were damaged while in Korutla mandal, crops on 620 acres were damaged. In Sarangapur mandal, crops on 250 acres were damaged.
Farmers alleged that, with the heavy rains in July, the floodwater carrying sand and mud damaged their fields and they spent Rs 25,000 to prepare the fields again for cultivation. After a lot of hard work, they were expecting a good yield from the crops.
The protesters urged the government to bail them out by paying compensation for the crop loss.
