The crops in vegetative state and those that were harvested and kept outside faced the brunt of unexpected and untimely rainfall in some parts of AP on 15th, 16th and 17th of February. According to emerging reports, rabi crops in at least 12 districts of Andhra Pradesh were severely hit by this. Heavy rain led to damage of chilli crop in Krishna, Guntur, Khhammam, Prakasham and adjoining districts. Al least 9240 tonnes of turmeric was damaged in Nizamabad yard as it was kept in the open and was caught by unexpected hailstorm.
Maize crop that is in vegetative state was also damaged in nearly 4,000 hectares in Warangal district that was hit by unexpected rainfall on Friday and Saturday (15th &16th) nights. According to a statement by the district collector, as many as 975 farmers were affected as crops in 790 hectares were damaged, while 4,734 farmers suffered loss on account of crop damage in 3,105 hectares across the district on Saturday night.
Maize crop in Regonda, Parkal, Atmakur, Shayampet, Nekkonda, Chityal, Mogullapalli, Hanamkonda, Geesukonda and Sangem mandals was damaged due to gales, hailstorm and rain. The highest rainfall of 4.82 cm was recorded in Maripeda mandal in the Warangal district followed by 2.84 cm in Kuravi and 2.56 cm in Thorrur.
Unexpected heavy rain broke all the records in Krishna District where 27165 hectares of gram and maize were affected. A total of 25468 hectares of black gram was affected while 300 hectares of maize was affected due to the heavy rain and hail storm. According to Dr.Maheshwar Prasad, Codinator DAATT Centre at Machilipatnam who led a team to assess the loss, the total rainfall in Krishna district recorded on 17th of February was 89.1mm, a way above the normal for the month 7.35mm. Andhra Pradesh was caught by unexpected hail storm twice this month until now.
Photograph by DAATT
