Odisha: Farmers rue loss to crops

The Yaas-induced rain has damaged standing rabi paddy crops over large tracts of land in Sambalpur district. The district reported 55.49 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours against the normal rainfall of 32.3 mm in May.
While Jujumura block recorded 38.2 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours, Dhankauda block received 36 mm of rain. Similarly, Rengali block recorded 75 mm rainfall, Maneswar 36.4 mm, Kuchinda 75.8 mm, Jamankira 54.6 mm, Bamra 98.4 mm, Rairakhol 31 mm and Naktideul 54 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.
Sources said many farmers had not harvested paddy due to shortage of labourers and now the crop has been damaged due to unseasonal rainfall, causing huge loss to farmers.Secretary of Sambalpur Zilla Krushak Surakhya Sangathan Byomakesh Thakur said farmers of the district depend upon labourers from Chhattisgarh, Bargarh and Balangir district to harvest the crop.
“Due to the second wave of Covid-19, the labourers didn’t turn up. Now 70% farmers are yet to harvest the crop,” he said.
Thakur said farmers, who had harvested paddy using machines and kept the crop in the open after threshing, have also incurred losses as paddy in the bags has got damaged in the heavy rainfall.