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Vegetable and fruit farmers of the state have incurred losses to the tune of Rs 107 crore due to tropical cyclone Phailin, as per the estimates of the state horticulture department.
The cyclone followed by heavy rain damaged vegetable crop sown on 28,109 hectare (ha) area, and fruit crop on 5,970 ha area, as per first hand report filed by the state horticulture department. The losses have been calculated at Rs 25,000 per ha for vegetable crops, Rs 50000 per ha for perennial fruits and Rs 75,000 for non-perennial fruits and the total loss could tocuh Rs 107.10 crore, the department said.
Key vegetables grown in the state are brinjals, potatoes and tomatoes. Among perennial fruit crops, the state cultivates mango, litchi, guava, oranges and non-perennial fruit crops of the state include banana, papaya and pineapple. The normal rainfall received during June to September from South-West monsoon is immensely suitable for growing vegetable crops in the state.
Cyclone Phailin, which made a landfall on the southern coast of Odisha on the evening of October 12 at a wind speed of 200 km an hour, affected nearly half a million ha farm land , destroying standing paddy crop and cashew and betel plantations in worst hit Ganjam district. The total crop damage due to the tropical storm is estimated at Rs 2300 crore.
While Phailin impacted eight million people in 13 districts- Puri, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Gajapati, Balasore, Bhadrak, Khurda, Cuttack, Keonjhar and Balasore ? Ganjam suffered the most.
