Andhra Pradesh - Eluru   

Rain shatters ryots' hopes

ELURU: The untimely rain spelt doom for Karumuri Srinivasa Rao, a sharecropper from Kothamupparu in Pedapadu mandal of West Godavari district. He raised paddy on 10 acres of leased land in rabi. The crop was harvested just a few days ago and the paddy sheaves were in the fields under a sheet of rainwater. He was seen salvaging the produce by draining out water from the fields manually.

“It is very difficult to find takers for my produce if it is rained for one more day,” he said. The rain is expected to result in higher levels of moisture in the grains. When produce contains moisture beyond the stipulated limits, it is quite unlikely for the growers to receive the minimum support price in the market.

Srinivasa Rao has borrowed Rs. 2. lakh from ‘commission agents', who act as middlemen between millers and farmers, at an interest rate of Rs. 3 to invest on paddy cultivation in rabi. The cultivation cost has crossed Rs. 18,000 per acre. He is expected to reap 30 bags per acre. “I am bound to give the landlord 10 bags of produce as lease. I am sure to end up with a negative balance of Rs. 4,000 per acre,” he said. “The rain pushed me further into a vortex of problems,” he lamented.

The downpour dampened the farmers' hopes of getting a bumper crop in the rabi across the district. Of the total paddy area of 5.5 lakh acres, 40 per cent of it was harvested so for, mostly with the help of harvesters.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

New Collector promises to tone up administration
Rain shatters ryots' hopes

Copyright © 2011, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu