Telangana farmers face losses after unseasonal rain, cotton growers worst hit

Cotton

The continuing unseasonal rain in October has affected 98,000 hectares of sown land in Telangana in the last two weeks, reports Mint.

The Telangana state agriculture department’s initial assessment shows that 1.13 lakh farmers were affected by the October rain. Many places recorded rainfall that was overall 100 millimetres higher than the yearly average.

Kharif season saw farmers planting cotton crop on 49 percent of farmland, an increase of more than 50 percent from last year to 1.9 million hectares. The unforeseen damage is likely to add to the woes of the state government which had anticipated trouble from cotton farmers.

The exact damage to crops will be known only after the rain stops. Data is collected from different parts of the state on a daily basis. A report will be prepared on the basis of that data which will be sent to the state government.

The state’s agricultural department data as on October 13 showed 98,000 hectares of crops were affected including73,000 hectares of cotton, 17,000 hectares of paddy, 1,600 hectares for maize, 4,800 hectares for red gram and 1,000 hectares for castor.