5 months ago
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Teams of both Revenue and Agriculture officials will take up crop loss enumeration from December 9 onwards as paddy and other crops got damaged in several mandals of Vizianagaram district under the impact of cyclone Michaung. The officials have estimated that the paddy crop was damaged in 10,084 acres with the heavy downpour in almost all mandals of the district. Maize crop was spoiled in 251 acres and vegetable crops were also damaged in around 5,000 acres.
Vizianagaram Collector S. Nagalakshmi, Joint Collector K. Mayur Ashok and Joint Director of Agriculture Department V. T. Ramarao have been reviewing the situation to ascertain the crop damage and remedial measures to be taken up to instill confidence among the farmers. The dry spell in the months of September and October led to drop in paddy yielding from 20 quintals to 14 quintals in many places. Now, the cyclone added to their woes with the loss of crops even after harvesting. Opposition parties say the damage was more than the government’s estimation as 117 mm rainfall received in the last four days inundated crops in all mandals of the district.
Vizianagaram former MLA Meesala Geeta criticised the government for not taking up immediate action to protect the standing crop. She said that the then TDP government used to announce ₹20, 000 (per acre) financial assistance per acre immediately whenever the crop damage was reported. She alleged that the government’s response was very poor this time. Jana Sena Party’s Etcherla constituency in-charge S. Vishwaksen asked the government to announce input subsidy and financial assistance for coconut and cashew farmers also since the damage was more in Etcherla, Ranasthalam and other constituencies.
