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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cloud burst pushes farmers back to square one-Giji K Raman

Cloud burst pushes farmers back to square one-Giji K Raman

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published Published on Jun 6, 2014   modified Modified on Jun 6, 2014
-The Hindu
 

MARAYUR (IDUKKI, Kerala): Raja is a traditional farmer in Kanthallur village who makes a living out of vegetable cultivation in his three-acre land.

Disaster struck him on Monday in the form of cloud burst. Seeds of cabbage, carrot, garlic and beans were washed away and the land on which he and his wife toiled to sow the seeds after the summer rain was turned in a slush of accumulated garbage.

Raja is back to square one. The ground has to be cleared again for sowing, which he says is too tall a task.

Like other farmers, he had taken a loan from a private bank and pawned his wife's gold to sow the seeds and meet school-opening expenses of his two children. He says that if he were able to harvest the vegetables during Onam season, he could have made enough to repay the loans

The farmers here take loans from multiple sources and repay them after harvest. Any unexpected drought or rain could spoil their life.

The two-acre carrot cultivation of Vijayan and Ambily in Puthoor too, has been buried under mud. They had timed the cultivation for the Onam market. His entire farming equipment is under mud. Vijayan says that he had spent a big amount for cultivation and now everything has been destroyed.

The farming community depends on rain for starting the cultivation and vagaries in weather push them into debt. Farmers say that over 200 acres of land where seeds were sown for the main cool season crops has been destroyed in rain.

Cultivation in over 100 acres of land in the Pallanoda area of Grahanathapuram is buried beneath the mud brought along by the flood water gushing from Mannavanchola forest. Strawberry cultivation in Perumala area too, has been wrecked.

Though officials of the agriculture department claim that 15 hectares of farmland were destroyed, farmers here say they suffered losses of over Rs. 1 crore.

For many farmers, it is the second sowing of seeds for the season as the first one in April was destroyed in the summer rain.

The traditional farmers depend on moneylenders from Tamil Nadu for sowing seeds, and the harvest products are given to them at a price fixed by them.


The Hindu, 5 June, 2014, http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/cloud-burst-pushes-farmers-back-to-square-one/article6084211.ece


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