Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Crops spread over 82,000 hectares of land in Marathwada were damaged due to unseasonal rains in the current month.
Rains lashed the region from March 6 to 8 and 14 to 20. All the districts recorded 12 mm of rainfall. Crops spread on 49,000 hectares of dry land, 26,000 hectares of irrigated land and 5,500 hectares of the orchard were damaged in the unseasonal rains as per the report of the administration dated March 19. More than 33 per cent of crops of wheat, onions, grams and fruits were affected on a big level and the losses put farmers in distress. The district-wise damaged crops spread on the hectare are as follows; Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (11,000 hectares land crops), Jalna (15,000 hectares), Parbhani (3,275 hectares), Hingoli (5,500 hectares), Nanded (23,801 hectares), Beed (11,000 hectares), Latur (11,500 hectares).
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1.5 L farmers affected
More than 1.5 lakh farmers from the region suffered crop losses following unseasonal rains between March 6 and 19.
The details of damages and affected 0farmers from Dharashiv district are not available yet.
A total of 54,171 employees were on indefinite strike in the eight districts. The agitation ended on Monday evening.
The crops spread on 82,000 hectares of land were damaged while panchnamas of 4,605 hectares (5.61) were carried out.
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Divisional commissioner Sunil Kendrekar said that as per the preliminary information, the rabi crops of 1.5 lakh farmers were damaged during the last 20 days because of hailstorms and rains in the region.
He directed the collectors of eight districts through video conferencing to complete the panchnama of losses and submit its report by March 22.