Rain bane for farmers of Koraput, paddy purchase hit

JEYPORE: Untimely rain for the past three days has hit the ongoing paddy harvesting process in Koraput district with farmers suspending all activities due to the inclement weather.

Since Wednesday, rains are continuing to lash paddy chunks of Kotpad, Jeypore, Kundra and Boipariguda where the crop cutting and threshing was on in full swing. Farmers had started cutting crop from the first week of November. 

Sources said paddy crop over around 20,000 hectare of land were harvested  before rains played the spoilsport. Rainwater has submerged standing and harvested crops in some low lying areas of Jeypore and Borrigumma. 

Sagar Samantra, a farmer of Kundra, said he was forced to suspend crop cutting due to the unseasonal rain. “Farmers are worried because we have to wait for dry weather condition to restart agriculture activities and this may take several days,” he said.

Besides, some farmers are concerned about their submerged crops which may take days to dry. “I have to wait for another seven days for my paddy crop to become dry for cutting and threshing,” rued Ganja Pangi, a farmer of Dhanpur.

The rains have also affected paddy procurement process at different mandis in Jeypore sub-division. Sources said over 20,000 quintal of paddy were stocked by farmers of many villages in Jeypore, Kotpad , Kundra, Boipariguda and Borrigumma which cannot be transported to the government-run mandis due to bad weather. 

District civil supplies officer Tularam Nayak said the procurement process would normalise once the weather gets clear.