Crop damage assessment begins in Guntur district

Guntur: Teams of Agriculture and Horticulture departments started enumeration process to assess the crop damage caused by Cyclone Nivar in the district. The teams visited and assessed crop damage caused by the cyclone. Paddy, cotton,greengram, blackgram, red gram, red chilli, turmeric, papaya,banana, onion, vegetable gardens were worst hit in the district.

According to primary assessment, horticulture crops were damaged in 3,000 hectares in the district. Agriculture crops were hit in 63,500 hectares in Guntur district.

The enumeration teams will assess the crop damage and submit the report to the district collector I Samuel Anand Kumar for approval. The district officials have already directed the officials to submit the report by December 10. The commissioners of agriculture and horticulture department will send the report to the government for taking further action to pay input subsidy to the farmers whose crops were damaged due to cyclone. Heavy rains and floods continuously hit the crops in September,October and November. Meanwhile, Guntur MP GallaJayadev and former MLA D Narendra Kumar on Tuesday visited cyclone hit agriculture fields at  Vejendla, Narakoduru,Kollimarla,Suddapalli,Vadlamudi in Ponnur Assembly constituency on Tuesday and inspected affected crops.

Speaking on this occasion,GallaJayadev said that cyclones and floods have been damaging the crops for the last one-and-a-half years.He questioned why the government did not pay the crop insurance premium to the farmers.He demanded the government to do justice to the farmers and tenant farmers whose crops were damaged. Later,they visited agriculture fields and horticulture fields in Kakamanu mandal of Guntur district.

Meanwhile, former MLA Yarapathineni SrinivasaRao visited agriculture and horticulture fields at Veerapuram village under Pidiguralla mandal.He interacted with the farmers and demanded that the government pay compensation to the farmers whose crops were damaged due to Cyclone Nivar.