Although Cyclone Jawad has considerably weakened from its initial projections and estimates, it has lashed several parts of the state with heavy to very heavy rainfall. Farmers have become the victim of this untimely rainfall as the cropping season does not expect showers during this time of the year.
The Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) and the Odisha University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) had issued an advisory for the farmers to harvest 85% ripe paddy because of expected rainfall triggered by the cyclonic storm and store them in safe places.
The situation triggered massive panic harvest in various parts of the State. However, due to late sowing, crop harvesting has been largely unsuccessful. As a result, farmers in the south, north and coastal belt of the State have incurred huge losses due to the cyclone-triggered rainfall.
Farmers of Udala and Kaptipada in Mayurbhanj now stare at uncertainty following the massive crop damages caused by the rainfall. Though some of the farmers were able to harvest the crops, they failed to shift the yield to safer places in due time. The croppers have expressed huge concerns that if the wet conditions continue for a longer period, it would eventually wipe out any chance of breaking even.
“I had taken a loan from the bank for growing paddy. However, unabated rainfall from Saturday midnight has become a reason for worry. Many of us harvested the crops hurriedly but couldn’t shift them from the fields. They are now lying on the fields submerged in water,” said an anxious farmer.
Though the scare of the severe cyclone dissipated providing relief to the public at large, the unseasonal rainfall has threatened to cause a huge setback to agriculture ahead of the peak harvest period of the Kharif season.