The Andhra Pradesh government has prepared a preliminary assessment of the damage caused by heavy and untimely rains that caused havoc in different parts of the state for three days, starting May 8.
According to an assessment of the disaster management department, nine persons and 42 cattle were killed in rain-related incidents. Agriculture crops in about 10,000 hectares (ha) of land have been damaged, says the report.
Read more on untimely rains, hail, this year
The reason for the heavy rains was the low pressure over north coastal Andhra Pradesh and the neighbourhood. Many paddy growers who were about to harvest their crops as well as who harvested their crops but could not shift the produce to the procurement centres and market yards suffered heavily. About 1,200 tonnes of paddy stored at paddy purchase centres got drenched. The chances for unprocured paddy getting discoloured are high. If at all the farmers can find takers for the wet and discoloured paddy, they will have to sell the produce for low prices.
As per the state government's preliminary damage assessment, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Warangal district suffered maximum crop damage.
Cyclones last season, now rains
Crops in 3,551 ha in Warangal, 1,180 ha in Nalgonda and 784 ha in Ranga Reddy got damaged. Horticulture crops, mainly mango, have been damaged on 35,910 ha in 12 districts. As for the horticulture crop damage, Krishna district with 12,600 ha, Karim Nagar with 8,765 ha and Visakhapatnam with 6,550 ha were hit the hardest.
Farmers in Andhra Pradesh, especially coastal areas, had suffered heavily from three severe cyclones—Phailin, Helen and Lehar in October -November last year.
Report: Monsoon 2013