Collector inspects rain-damaged crops

PNS|Guntur

District Collector M Venugopal Reddy visited some of the fields at Takkellapadu, Uppalapadu, Hoffpet, and Kolakaluru village and saw the sprouted paddy produce on Tuesday.

The Collector along with Tenali sub-collector Gitanjali Sharma and agriculture officials saw the damaged paddy produce of a farmer Vallabhapurapu Jojappa. The farmer told the Collector that the harvested paddy produce was soaked in rain and it started sprouting.

The Collector went on a tractor to some fields and saw the damaged crop. The farmers urged the Collector to take steps to construct a road to transport their agricultural produce on vehicles to the market and the Collector directed the Panchayat Raj AE to prepare an estimation for the same.

Later, talking to the media, the Collector said that gunny bags were being provided in sufficient numbers to the RBKs to transport paddy produce and asked the farmers not to worry about selling their produce.

He said that the farmers, who have lost their crops, should not lose confidence as the Chief Minister directed them to purchase the damaged paddy produce from the farmers.

The Collector said that it had been raining in the district since Saturday and crops like paddy, black gram, and green gram were damaged and the farmers suffered crop loss. He said that as per the preliminary enumeration, crops were damaged on over 6000 acres in the division.

Steps were being taken to extend the compensation to the farmers at the earliest after completing the enumeration. He said that so far 470 MT of paddy produce had been purchased in Kollipara mandal itself and there is no need for the farmers to sell their produce at a cheaper price.

Meanwhile, former MLA and TDP leader Dhulipala Narendra Kumar met Collector Venugopal Reddy when he was seeing the damaged crop at a field and urged him to provide seeds at subsidized prices to the rain hit farmers to enable them to start sowing operations. He also appealed to them to provide black gram and green gram seeds to the farmers at subsidized prices.