Haryana: Paddy crop damaged in Ambala and Kurukshetra

Paddy crop in over 3.78 lakh acres is estimated to have suffered damages in Ambala and Kurukshetra districts due to the recent rains and flooding.

As per information gathered from the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, paddy crop in over 2.31 lakh acres in Kurukshetra and nearly 1.47-lakh acres in Ambala is estimated to have suffered damages.

Vinod Rana from Khudda Kalan village said, “I got paddy transplanted in 15 acres, but the fields remained submerged for several days. There was about 5 feet of water in my fields, leaving the paddy crop badly damaged. The water remained stagnant in the fields as its natural flow got disturbed due to the construction of roads. The fields are below the level of roads due to which the water was not passing.”

As per the data, the Ambala-1 block has suffered major losses in 41,500 acres, followed by Barara (35,000 acres), Saha (32,600), Shahzadpur (18,000), Ambala-II (13,900) and Naraingarh (6,000). In Kurukshetra, the Pehowa block has suffered the major loss with damages in over 61,750 acres, followed by Ismailabad (41,350 acres), Shahabad (40,265), Thanesar (37,060), Babain (20,917), Ladwa (15,838) and Pipli (14,455).

The farmers said those who had paddy nursery would transplant paddy again, but the shortage of nurseries had become a matter of concern for a majority of the farmers. Some farmers are also growing nurseries again for the paddy to overcome the shortage of nurseries to some extent.

Deputy Director Agriculture Ambala, Dr Jasvinder Singh, said, “The farmers are advised to sow late varieties of non-basmati and basmati crop and complete transplantation up to August 15. The government also provides a subsidy of Rs 7,000 per acre on the fallow land under Mera Pani Meri Virasat scheme.”

This article has been republished from The Tribune