On Monday, the loss to the farm sector has been estimated at Rs10 billion, senior agriculture department officials said. ''We have started purchasing mainly from farmers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. For a few vegetables we have also approached Maharashtra,'' Justin Mohan, director, Agriculture Department, said. This year, the Agriculture Department had originally decided to cut down 'imports' from neighbouring states to promote internal procurement. But sustained rainfall and consequent floods had devastated the vegetable-growing districts leaving a 90 per cent shortfall in supply, the agriculture director said.
As per Monday's figures, crop losses have been reported in 45,988 hectares across all 14 districts with paddy, banana, rubber, vegetables, tubers, cardamom and coconut listed among the worst-affected.
For instance, 18,316.38 hectares of main-field paddy land and 561.7 hectares of nursery paddy fields have been destroyed.
Newindianexpress.com reports that the floods and landslides have affected 280,442 farmers in all.
