The unseasonal rain under the influence of cyclone Michaung has put paid to the paddy farmers’ hope of a good harvest in Bhadrak district.
The paddy farmers across Bhadrak district were hopeful that this year they would have a good harvest. Their hope was dashed to the ground when unseasonal rainfall caused by cyclone Michaung lashed the district. The farmers didn’t even get time to cut and shift their harvest-ready crops to safer places. As of now, at places, knee-deep water is found in paddy fields.
The farmers alleged they wouldn’t get anything. As rainwater is standing in the paddy fields they can’t harvest paddy now and by the time the water dries up, the crops would have been damaged.
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The spectre of crop loss has left the farmers a worried lot. They are stressed over the loans taken from friends, relatives, and banks.
“It will be a difficult task to harvest our paddy crops as water is standing in the fields. By the time the fields get dry, the paddy would be sprouting,” said a farmer.
Another farmer rued, “Under the impact of the rainfall, the paddy plants have fallen and submerged in water. At this time, harvest is impossible. Loss is inevitable.”
Expressing her difficulties, a female farmer said, ‘I am a sharecropper. I had availed bank loan to grow paddy. How can I repay the loans?”