PNS|Ongole
Tobacco Board Executive Director Sridhar Babu has said that damage to tobacco crop due to the Mandous cyclone would be assessed expeditiously and steps would be taken to do justice to the tobacco farmers.
Sridhar Babu, along with district Collector AS Dinesh Kumar and other officials, visited the cyclone-hit tobacco fields at Lingamgunta, Marellaguntavari Palem, and Peddakothapally villages. They saw the damaged tobacco crop in the fields.
The farmers told them that if the water stagnation at the tobacco fields continued for four days the tobacco plants would perish. They also explained that the roots of tobacco plants were getting rotten due to the stagnation of rainwater in the fields which led to the perishing of the crop.
Sridhar Babu examined the roots of the tobacco plants and assured the tobacco farmers of extending help at the earliest.
Sridhar Babu said that five teams were formed to conduct an enumeration of the tobacco crop loss in the district. The teams would coordinate with the revenue officials to numerate tobacco crop damage, he said.
Collector Dinesh Kumar said that apart from the tobacco crop, groundnut and black gram crops were also damaged in the district due to the cyclone. Steps were taken to complete the e-crop process for the tobacco farmers to extend help at the earliest and the officials were directed in this regard, the Collector said.
District agriculture officer Srinivasa Rao, RDO Visweswara Rao, and agriculture JD Ramesh Babu were among those accompanying them.
