DEHRADUN: The farmers of Udham Singh Nagar (US Nagar) -- regarded as the premier rice-growing belt of Uttarakhand -- have suffered a major setback due to the recent rains, as the ripened paddy crop, ready to be harvested across 45,000 hectares of agricultural land, has been waterlogged.
“Preliminary findings indicate losses worth almost Rs 98 crore because of damage to crops spread across around 45,000 hectares,” said A K Verma, district agriculture officer, US Nagar.
Farmers in the region said that the paddy crop is usually harvested by mid-October. However, this year, because of excess moisture in the paddy grains, the process got a little delayed. This delay proved costly as untimely rains lashed the area last week.
Udham Singh Nagar has almost 1.5 lakh farmers who produce at least 4.4 lakh metric tons of rice every year, which is also exported to various countries. The area is famous for its rice, wheat and sugarcane.
“Recently, we had harvested paddy across 40 hectares of land. We were now supposed to get rice from the paddy after thrashing it. However, everything has drowned. We are left helpless as our prime source of income has gone away,” said Daljeet Singh, 58, a farmer from Pratapur area of the district.
Agriculture department officials who made a preliminary assessment of the damage, said that almost 60% of the paddy crop was already harvested and has been swept away in the fast-flowing water, while the remaining 40% has been so severely waterlogged that it’s market value has crashed.
They added that a joint committee of the agriculture department and the revenue department has been formed to evaluate the losses and give compensation to the affected farmers.
