On the second day of their tour of areas affected by the heavy rainfall caused by cyclone Burevi in the State, the Central team inspected crop damages in Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts on Wednesday.
An eight member led by Ashutosh Agnihotri, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, visited affected areas and interacted with farmers for a first-hand account of the damage caused by the rain to standing crops.
In Nagapattinam district, the team visited Karunkanni in Keezhaiyur union and Vadakkupanaiyur in Keezh Velur Union where farmers narrated their woes displaying the damaged paddy and horticulture crops. The team inspected photographs of the inundated fields and damaged crops displayed at the villages. The district officials led by Praveen P.Nair explained to the team that standing crop on about 82,330 hectares were estimated to have been damaged in Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts.
In Thanjavur, the team interacted with farmers at Periyakottai near Madukkur. They conversed with two farmers, A.Rathnasabapathy and P.Lakshminathan of Periyakottai in Hindi as the progressive farmers responded to their queries in the language. The farmers explained to the team how the paddy crop raised on about 230 hectares out of 279 hectares in the village was inundated due to a breach in Kannanaru. The team also visited Ullur near Orathanadu.
Earlier, Collector, M.Govinda Rao gave a brief account of the crop loss in Thanjavur district. Stating that crops such as paddy, maize and groundnut sowed on 21576 acres were affected in the inclement weather conditions, he said a total of 11065 farmers have suffered crop loss. The Joint Director (Agriculture), Justin explained how the heavy downpour had affected the paddy crop at different stages – vegetative, panicle initiation, grain filling and harvesting stages.
At Thanjavur, P.R.Pandian, president, president, Tamil Nadu All Farmers Associations Coordination Committee, met the Central team and submitted a memorandum seeking ₹30,000 per acre of damaged paddy as compensation. He also sought fair compensation for damages to banana, sugarcane and coconut crops.
