Officials suspect a fall in rice production. Pune: Farmers across Pune district’s paddy-growing belt are staring at substantial crop losses after untimely heavy showers on Friday and Saturday damaged both harvested and standing crops.
The damage comes after nearly two months of inadequate rainfall, during which farmers struggled to protect their standing crops. The prolonged dry spell had already affected crop growth and raised concerns over productivity. Adding to it, the intensity of Saturday’s showers has proved disastrous for farmers who had started harvesting their crops and has left them struggling to salvage whatever remained.
District agriculture officer Vaibhav Tambe told TOI , “This untimely rainfall has incurred double loss for paddy farmers who suffered due to the lack of rainfall and now their crops are under water. This will reduce rice production significantly in the paddy-growing. The rainfall also threatens to aggravate the financial distress of small and marginal farmers, who had invested in cultivation despite uncertainty over monsoon rainfall.