A farmer looks at his paddy crop damaged by strong winds caused by Cyclone Montha in Guduru district of Krishna district on Wednesday. | Photo credit: KVS GIRI
Although Cyclone Montha did not cause much rainfall in Krishna district, it caused strong winds that damaged agricultural crops in 46,359 hectares of the district, most of which are paddy.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), wind speed reached 65 kmph in Machilipatnam on Tuesday. Strong winds uprooted 446 electric poles, damaged 30 transformers and uprooted 506 trees in the district, according to a preliminary report by the Krishna district administration. One person, K. Subba Rao, died after a tree fell on him in Kruthivenn.
According to the preliminary crop damage report, paddy crops were damaged in 45,040 hectares, blackgram in 985 hectares, groundnut in 288.2 hectares and cotton in all 43 hectares and 56,040 farmers were affected. A full enumeration will be made later.
P. Rama Rao, Maganti Nagaraju and Suresh are among the farmers whose paddy crops suffered damage due to the cyclone. Rama Rao, who has 15 acres of paddy near National Highway 65 in Guduru Mandal, has invested ₹45,000 per acre in the crop. Now he fears that the expenses will only increase. Pointing to the wilted crops, he says, “Usually it takes an hour and a half to harvest one acre of paddy with a machine. Now it takes more than five hours with the same machine,” he says.
A farmer pays ₹ 3,000 or more for one hour of using the machine because a person cannot do the job.
The cyclone came at a time when the crop was two weeks away from harvest. “We will now wait ten days before harvesting the crop. If it rains again in the meantime, the damage and costs will only increase,” says Nagaraju, assessing the extent of the damage to his crops. About 70% of it is damaged, he concludes.
A farmer shows his banana crop, damaged due to strong winds caused by severe cyclonic storm Montha, near Pamarru in Krishna district on Wednesday. | Photo credit: KVS GIRI
Of the ₹45,000 expenditure per acre, farmers here say they can recover only ₹10,000-15,000. Rice farmers will take their produce at a lower price and sell it to the government at a higher price, they say. “There’s no way we’re going to benefit from it.”
In Pamarru Mandal, farmers were seen lamenting over fallen banana and papaya trees. The fruits fell to the ground because of the wind.
District Agriculture Officer Padmavathi said the state government would provide input subsidies to those farmers who suffered a 33% loss in their yield. “If it doesn’t rain in the next five days, there is a chance to save some of the withered crops in the district. If it rains, the damage will be more,” he says.
Published – 29 Oct 2025 20:47 IST
