Coimbatore: Heavy rains have been lashing across all areas of Coimbatore and surrounding region. All the dams are overflowing as the southwest monsoon intensifies.
Coimbatore: Heavy rains have been lashing across all areas of Coimbatore and surrounding region. All the dams are overflowing as the southwest monsoon intensifies.
For the last 4 days, the Noyyal river catchment area of Thondamuthur, Alandurai and the surrounding areas has been receiving rains. Though rain generally is good news for everyone and especially for the farmers but incessant heavy rains hurt the farmers. Many here have incurred tremendous losses due to this heavy monsoon.
Banana trees have been uprooted by heavy wind and rains. Crops including onions and chillies were submerged in water. Farmers in Siruvani, Mathvarayapuram, Alandurai, Pooluvapatti and Narasipuram have been particularly affected.
Agricultural crops were submerged due to heavy rains that lashed for two days. Banana and sugarcane plantations have been found to be most affected.
The onion crops that were ready to be harvested in the next 5-10 days were all submerged under water. Due to the continuous heavy rains, the onions becamemoist and started decaying.
Speaking to Ramkumar of Siruvani Viluthugal, "onions get good prices only on special days like Deepavali. But everything here was submerged by the incessant rain. Thus, before harvest time, some farmers have harvested 70 to 85 percent of the small onions in the pouring rain with the intention of getting back any money they have invested.
Moreover, the farmers of Thondamuthur are trying to sell these at the prices demanded by the traders without being able to stock them. Thus the price is likely to increase in the coming months due to lack of onion stock. Farmers here who have been investing in crops such as bananas and small onions, which are facing huge losses due to the rains. Agriculture department officials said they could only say how much damage was done after the calculation.
The loss has come as a further shock to farmers as they are already unable to sell their produce from district to district due to the lokdown imposed due to the Coronavirus."