The farmers in Jagdalpur district will have to face a difficult time in the days to come, as heavy rains during the past four days damaged their standing paddy and maize crops.
The farmers were expecting a bumper crop when the weather office early this year predicted a normal monsoon. Although the paddy varieties of medium and long duration would not be affected much, they said the rains have damaged short duration paddy in thousands of hectares area.
In many area farmers were forced to show thrice as incessant rains damaged their seeds during the early days of the monsoon.
The situation has been particularly bad in the Sukma and Dantewada area where incessant rains have damaged standing paddy and maize crops in large area. They are also not able to cut the paddy crops already harvested because of the rain.
The farmers who have grown Maize crops instead of paddy are also likely to incur heavy loss due to excess rain. They apprehend the rain would affect the quality of the corn and they may not get remunerative prices. The standing crops also face threat from insecticides, they said.
In some villages of Dakshin Bastar and Dantewada, some farmers cut their harvested paddy crops and kept it open in the field or in open ground. Such crops have been damaged by the rain, they said.
A senior agriculture department official said the standing crops which have been harvested already or left in open after being cut likely to suffer damage, but the rains will not have any adverse impact on the standing paddy crops
those of medium or long
duration varieties.