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Tamil Nadu farmers hit by unseasonal rains

Already reeling from a number of setbacks in recent years, farmers in southern Tamil Nadu, including the Cauvery delta, have been hit hard by unseasonal rains.

Crops, either ready to be harvested or being dried or transported, standing on tens of thousands of acres have been irrevocably lost.

Already facing prospects of un-remunerative paddy prices, the rains have dashed farmers' hopes of recovering at least a part of previous losses from the bumper crop this year.

The rains, the result of a depression in the Bay of Bengal, have affected the coastal districts and some interiors districts. Even Chennai receiving intermittent drizzles.

Even the next crop will be affected as fields in the Cauvery delta are under knee-deep water.

This is one more in a series of woes afflicting the Tamil Nadu farmer in recent years.

While the fall in coconut prices following easing of import norms had taken its toll, farmers have been further squeezed by the cash- starved state government going slow in paddy procurement.

The only silver lining is that the rains have made the state less dependent on the Cauvery waters, coming from Karnataka, for pre-sowing operations for the next crop.

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