ADILABAD: Heavy rainfall across the state, especially in northern Telangana has now dealt a crushing blow by inundating the fields of already sown crops in hundreds of acres across the erstwhile Adilabad district.
Crops like cotton, soya and green gram have been affected, with farmers staring at losses.
The agriculture fields adjacent to rivers, rivulets, streams and tanks seem to have been damaged the most. In many places, floods resulted in sand casting in agricultural fields affecting the plants of cotton and soya.
With the torrential rains, the fertility of the soil was also washed away by the flood, lamenting the farmers in the district.
Standing crops were destroyed in Indravelli, Nanoor and Gadeguda, Adilabad, Utnoor, Kerameri, Jainoor, Sirikonda, Lingapur, Sirpur (U), and Boath mandals.
About 150 acres of cotton and soya crops being cultivated in the limits of Heerapur gram panchayat alone in Utnoor mandal were submerged in the rainwater. BRS MPP of Utnoor Pandra Jayawanth Rao visited these villages and enquired about the crop damage.
He requested the district collector Rahul Raj to send the officials concerned to the villages to assess the crop damage and pay compensation to the affected farmers.
Rao visited Heerapur (P), Tejapur, Balanpur, Danthanpalli and Bheersaipet villages. He said the saplings and plants of the crops were washed away while some were uprooted, dashing the hopes of farmers in Utnor mandal.
Soya and cotton crops got damaged due to floods in Mallapur village in Indravelli mandal. Pusam Anand Rao, a farmer from Mallapur village, said that he had sown cotton on his two acres. But the entire crop was inundated due to the floods. He had no hope that the flood water will recede in the next two weeks to save his crop.
Adivasi farmer Atram Manku of Heerapur (J) expressed his anguish as the standing crop of cotton and green gram on 5.2 acres was completely destroyed by the flood.
Meanwhile, the farmers, whose crops were still under flood water, were also worried as the thick sheet of water in their fields would have a detrimental impact on the growth of the crops. Some farmers fear a pest attack.
A delayed monsoon onset had earlier impacted Kharif's commencement of sowing operations with low soil moisture.
Meanwhile, the bridges located at Vadgan-Pataguda, Maruthiguda, Heerapur, and Valgonda villages in Indravelli mandal got breached due to the incessant rains.
