Khammam, Karimnagar ryots fret over rain

KHAMMAM/KARIMNAGAR: Khammam has been witnessing rains from Thursday and many farmers who brought paddy to IKP centre are at a loss as most of their produce has become wet. Several mandals have been receiving heavy rains from Thursday night. The farmers whose paddy crop has reached harvesting stage have also been badly affected as crop in the field has got drenched and fallen down in several places.

G Hanumantha Rao, a farmer of Vemsoor mandal said, ‘’We had just started harvesting the paddy but the sudden rain damaged the crop.” Bandi Sudhakar Reddy from Kandukur village said, ‘’Already, we had suffered huge losses because of the heavy rains of last month and now, the cyclone has hit our crops.” 
Agriculture officials have warned farmers not to venture into fields to cut paddy till the cyclone ends and has been supplying tarpaulins to cover paddy crops. 

Produce being sold to rice millers in K’nagar

Farmers in Karimnagar are a worried lot because it has been drizzling from last two days. Many who brought their produce to procurement centres like IKP centres are worried that the moisture content may increase because of the cloudy weather. For the last one week, farmers have been drying the paddy and trying their best to protect the produce from getting wet in the rain, said one of the farmers from Kothapalli village. 

Another farmer, Sagar Reddy said agencies have been paying the price only for 32 kg paddy for each 40 kg bag under the pretext of high moisture content. Taking advantage of the situation, rice millers are procuring all the paddy from farmers at the field level by offering cash below MSP. Though farmers are getting fleeced they are worried that rains might further damage their prospects and therefore selling off their produce as quickly as possible to the rice millers. 

Farmers have been demanding free transportation from fields to IKP centres and have urged the administration not to cut Hamali charges from the money. Meanwhile, CCI authorities have suspended procurement of cotton due to cloudy weather, and have suggested farmers not to bring cotton to marketyards till December 1.