Untimely rains play havoc with crops in Balasore

BALASORE: Nature has been cruel to the farmers of Balasore district. First they had the shock of low yield due to insufficient rain during the fruit-bearing season. Now, the farmers are scared of huge losses with the rains in the last few days destroying large tracts of vegetable and pulse  crops. Vegetables, mustard and groundnut crops were cultivated on over 30,000 hectares of the coastal district. While farmers had started harvesting vegetables in some areas, mustard and groundnut crops had fully grown when the rains started. “The rains have destroyed tomato, cauliflowers, cabbage and green vegetables as the fields have been water-soaked. We  fear the recently sown groundnut seeds too would rot if the rainwater does not recede in a couple of days,” said Adikanda Barik, a farmer.  District Agriculture office sources said the untimely rain occurred due to a depression, damaging at least 50 per cent of the crops. The farmers have been directed to release rainwater from their fields, said Agriculture Officer of Jaleswar region, Bijay Mishra.