Chennai, Nov 11 (BPNS)
Agriculture crops cultivated in 3500 hectares of land were destroyed by the heavy rains that lashed Tamil Nadu for the past few days. Around 55000 hectares of agricultural crops are inundated in water for the past three days out of which 3500 hectares of agriculture is destroyed.
The state revenue and disaster management minister KKSSR Ramachandran while speaking to BPNS said, “3500 hectares of crop is destroyed in the state and this will affect us. However, we have to study in detail to arrive at the total loss and how it will affect the farmers. Compensation and other factors would be decided in the coming days once the rain and winds settle down.”
With the huge volume of crops destroyed in rains, the vegetable supply to the state is almost jeopardized as also sale of vegetables to the adjacent states like Kerala.
Tamil Nadu supplies about 60% of the vegetables arriving in Kerala and since the past few days, transport and supply of vegetables have affected the state. Sources in Tamil Nadu farmers association while speaking to BPNS said, “There is a dip in supply of vegetables to Kerala and according to a rough estimate the supply is affected by more than 60%. How these losses can be recovered is a million-dollar question.”
The farmers of Tamil Nadu were slowly standing on their feet after the pandemic and the state has given consent for farming to resume. However, the heavy rains have led to the inundation of crops and at present 3500 hectares of crop stands destroyed.
Selva Ganapathy, Secretary, Vegetable farmers association of Chengalpattu while speaking to bpNS said,” The farmers of Tamil Nadu were slowly looking up after the pandemic and back-to-back shutdowns but the sudden rains have thrashed all our expectations. We are now staring at the reality of debts and don’t know when we will get some meager compensation. The revenue minister has already stated that the government would assess the damage to the crops after the rains settle down and we are expecting that the government would compensate us in a better manner.”
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin has called upon the people of the state that the government would support the people affected by the rains and all damages would be taken care of by the government.
