A preliminary damage assessment survey by the Department of Horticulture has revealed that the rain that lashed Kalaburagi in the last three months has damaged standing vegetable crops and fruit plantations on 930 hectares of land, affecting 770 small and marginal farmers across the district.
Though the exact cultivation area of vegetables, fruits, and also perennial crops, was not available with the department, the survey taken up by the officials stated that vegetable crops on 585.21 hectares of land and fruit plantations on 116.84 hectares were damaged due to rain.
Onion crop on 54.70 hectares was damaged, against a cultivated area of 1,247 hectares, tomato on 92 hectares was damaged, against a cultivated area of 687 hectares and green chilli on 84 hectares was damaged, against a cultivated area of 866 hectares in the district.
Aland taluk was the worst affected with crops on around 350 hectares lost, followed by Kalaburagi taluk with crops on 104.50 hectares damaged and Sedam taluk with crops on 85 hectares damaged. Chincholi suffered crop loss on 61 hectares, Afzalpur taluk on 50 hectares, Jewargi taluk on 28.04 hectares and Chitapur taluk lost crops on 23.51 hectares of land.
Meanwhile, farmers were worried over rainwater stagnating in their fields.
Sudarshan Reddy, a farmer from Kallur in Chincholi taluk of the district, lost his banana plantation on five acres of land due to water-logging for over a week.
Mr. Reddy planted 21,000 banana plants on 13 acres of land of which plants on five acres of the plantation were submerged in water. He incurred a loss of ₹ 12 lakh. The farmer also suffered a loss of guava plantation on five acres and turmeric on three acres due to water-logging in his fields.
Farmers having less than two acres of land have completely lost their vegetable crops and fruits plantations that were inundated by floodwaters for more than two weeks due to excessive rainfall in the district.
However, farmers say that the damage caused by heavy rain and floods to standing crops is much higher and the department is yet to assess the complete loss.