AP Suffers Crops Damage in 1.15 Lakh Hectares Due to Montha
Based on a preliminary assessment, agriculture crops suffered damage in nearly 1,12,914 hectares.
Vijayawada:Heavy rainfall under the influence of cyclonic storm Montha in the last few days caused damage to several agriculture and horticulture crops in nearly 1.15 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh.
Based on a preliminary assessment, agriculture crops suffered damage in nearly 1,12,914 hectares. Of these, paddy crop was damaged in 71,750 hectares followed by cotton in 30,133 hectares and black gram in 6,073 hectares.
The areas of damage were the Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district that suffered a loss in 24,782 hectares, followed by NTR in 13,479 hectares. Some 1,37,921 farmers have been affected. Of them, 38,607 farmers were from the Ambedkar Konaseema.
Crops like paddy, cotton, black gram, maize, bajra, red gram, groundnut, green gram, seasamum, soyabean, tobacco, ragi, sugar cane, korra, jowar and cow gram faced damage . The likely production loss was of 2,46,592.41 tonnes with an estimated monetary loss of `68,229 lakh.
Agriculture director Manajeer Zilani Samoon directed the field-level officers to take up enumeration of crop damage or loss from Oct. 30 in non-submerged areas by ensuring high quality, accuracy and transparency.
Moreover, horticulture crops suffered damage in over 2,000 hectares affecting nearly 2,500 farmers. The damaged crops include: banana, vegetables, flowers, coconut, turmeric, flowers, cashew, chilli, onion, betelvine etc.
The energy department reported damage to 33/11 kv sub stations-444; 33 kv feeders-319 and 11kv feeders-2,107 with an estimated loss of `1,783.44 lakh, falling under the Discoms including APEPDCL, APCPDCL and APSPDCL. As part of rectification works, focus would be on 33/11 kv substations-443, 33 kv feeders-319 and 11 kv feeders-2,041.
Chief secretary K. Vijayanand lauded the staff of power utilities for their restoration works during the severe cyclonic storm.
