Cyclone Fani caused extensive damages to the standing crops, fruit orchards, plantation crops, vegetables and various other cash crops like mushroom, betel vine and honeybee, etc.
“Fani has wreaked severe damage to different infrastructure and assets thereby adversely affecting the life and livelihood of thousands of farmers,” said Horticulture Director Bijaya Ketan Upadhyaya.
According to the field reports, farmers of Puri, Khordha, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada are the worst sufferers along with the inhabitants of Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak , Ganjam, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Baleswar.
In costal districts, coconut plantation is the main stay of the farmers which provides them a major share of their annual income. Specifically out of 9,500 hectares of coconut plantation an area of about 6,625 hectares has been damaged very badly in Puri district only.
Odisha is the largest producer of paddy straw mushroom in the country. The worst-affected districts like Puri, Khordha, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack are the highest producers of mushroom in the State. Fani has affected more than 5,000 mushroom growers.
Betel vine is one of the main crops of small farmers in Puri, Khordha, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Cuttack districts. A farmer gets annual income of Rs 1 lakh per year for 15 years over an area of 5 cent. About 5,000 betel vine farmers have lost their livelihood with the effect of Fani.
Banana is a highly income generating crop, which is widely grown in irrigated belts of costal districts. During Fani, more than 1,650 hectares of standing crop of banana has been damaged. Besides, more than 10,000hectares of Vegetable crop along with vine crops have been damaged due to the wind followed by untimely rainfall.
A number of advanced farmers / agri-entrepreneurs have adopted the technology to grow exotic flowers and vegetables successfully. But unfortunately, the storm has dealt a death blow to such farmers / entrepreneurs in the cyclone hit areas. As per a preliminary assessment, approximately, 216000 Square Meters of protected structures i.e. greenhouse &andshade net house has been damaged. The extent of damage may vary between 40 per cent and 90 per cent from place to place. Total financial implication of the loss may be around Rs 12 crore.
The cold stores along the trajectory of cyclonic storm especially in the districts of Puri, Khurdha, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar Sub-Division have witnessed a large scale destruction as well. The entrepreneur who took pains to establish cold stores are now in the state of stupor. One thing nagging their minds is how to repay the high incurred term loan.
As per the preliminary report, four cold stores in the districts of Puri, Khurdha, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar Sub-Division are severely damaged and three cold stores in the districts of Bhadrak, Baleswar and Jajpur are partly damaged.
The extent of loss of incurred in the cold storages at Puri, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar Sub-Division would be around Rs 1 crore per cold store.
There is also apprehension that the after effects of the devastation caused by Fani to the cold store infrastructure could escalate prices of vegetables.
