ASSESSING LOSSES: Nallamada legislator K. Mohan Reddy explaining the damage caused to red gram crop to Central team members at Nallaguttapalli village in Anantapur district on Thursday.

ANANTAPUR: A sizeable section of farmers, who turned up for the Central team's study of drought conditions in the district on Thursday, felt that it was not the right time to assess the severity of crop loss, though the team could witness the resultant impact. They felt that it would have been useful had they visited three months before.

There was no drought-affected standing crop to be examined by the team all along way. Besides, the route of their visit was also full of lush green crops irrigated by bore-well water. The severity of the crop loss could be witnessed in November-December.

Elected representatives and other politicians vied with each other in not allowing the farmers explain their woes to the team at first three stops, where the team studied the situation. Pushing away the farmers, the elected representative tried to explain the situation initially.

Later, Principal Secretary of Agriculture C.V.S.K. Sharma took the initiative to set the visit in order and made the farmers give their version to the team and he himself translated their woes into English to the understanding of the team.

There was also a feeling among the farmers and farm workers that the situation could have been better explained to the team had they visited a few interior villages, as they were the most affected ones and witnessed large-scale migration.

In a memorandum to the team, District Congress Committee leaders, including A. Venkatarami Reddy, Anantapur MP, Zilla Parishad Chairperson T. Kavitha, Nallamada legislator K. Mohan Reddy and others explained that the farmers had suffered a loss of Rs. 1,500 crores due to failure of groundnut crop alone.

They urged them to recommend assistance generously.

On other hand, the district administration sought an assistance of Rs. 466 crores by putting kharif crop loss at Rs. 2,000 crores.

In a report submitted to the team, the administration explained that the district had recorded 39 per cent deficit rainfall this agriculture year.

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