Gale damages 82 hectares of banana crop in Thanjavur

Trichy: Around 82.2 hectares of banana crops have sustained significant damage because of the unseasonal strong winds for the past few day in Thanjavur district.

A M Shahjahan, an IUML MLA from Papanasam constituency and the minister for minorities welfare department, inspected the damaged banana plantation on Tuesday.

Officials said a total of 728.7 hectares of banana crops have been raised in Papanasam (432.9 hectares) and Thiruvaiyaru (295.7 hectares) areas. Gusty winds coupled with marginal rainfall in the past few days have uprooted and partially damaged standing banana crops, of which some are ready for harvest.

“The survey will continue for four more days to assess the damages among banana cultivation in Papanasam and Thiruvaiyaru. The chief minister will be informed about the extent of damage caused, and adequate compensation will be provided to the affected farmers,” the minister said.

The agriculture and horticulture departments have been instructed to simplify the process of applying for crop insurance to cover more farmers in the region, he said. “We received representations from farmers including constructing infrastructure to dry paddy, marketing centres, and a sales centre for floriculture crops. Inspections will be carried out to materialize the requests through the CM’s interventions,” he added.

District collector R Revathi will review the damage assessment report.