Excess rain damages crop in Rajasthan’s Hadoti region

Excess rains in last one week have damaged around 15% to 20% kharif crops in the Hadoti region, including Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar districts.

Although the floodwaters have receded from the towns and villages in the region, but the agricultural fields in many parts are still waterlogged, affecting the standing crops.

Officials of the agriculture department and revenue department have also started a survey of the crop loss.

Ramavatar Sharma, joint director of the agriculture department in Kota, said a primary survey reveals crop loss in around 55,000 to 60,000 hectares of cultivation area in which soybean, urad and maize crops are the worst hit due to excess rains. While soyabean is cultivated in around 6.81 lakh hectares of area, urad in around 2.08 lakh hectares and maize in around 70,000 hectares.

“Since kharif crops have been cultivated in around 11.37 lakh hectares of area so the loss could be around 15% to 25% when the survey gets completed on August 24,” he said. A revenue department official along with supervisor of the agriculture department is conducting the survey, he added.

“Crops have been damaged in many parts following stagnation of the water in the agricultural fields due to lack of drainage system in the field,” he said.

Farmers were asked to either report for damage on the toll free numbers of the crop insurance companies within 72 hours of the damage or approach to the agriculture department within seven days of the damage due to excess rains. He said all the four districts of Hadoti region have received an average rainfall of around 700 millimeters.

Meanwhile, farmer organisations have also demanded for providing crop compensation to the farmers.

Dashrath Kumar, general secretary of the Hadoti Kisan Union, said there has been significant loss to crops in Hadoti region due to excess rains so due crop compensation should be provided to the farmers. “Water-logging should also be cleared in the fields by removing blocked drains near canals,” he said.