The hopes of farmers in Ganjam and Gajapati districts of Odisha were dashed due to cyclone Hudhud who were expecting to reap a bumper kharif crop this year. While standing paddy crops were hit in thousands of hectares in southern Odisha due to untimely rain, other crops such as vegetables, sugarcane, pulses, groundnut and cotton were also damaged.
The paddy and non-paddy areas in the Ganjam district stood at 2.23 lakh hectares and 1.38 lakh hectares respectively. Of these, paddy and non-paddy crops were damaged in 20,000 hectares and 62,500 hectares respectively.
In Gajapati district, damage to standing crop is estimated at paddy (27,973 hectares), cotton (13,486 hectares), pulses (11,458 hectares), vegetables (13,268 hectares) and corn (13,166 hectares).