Heavy rain lashed several parts of Tiruchi district on Thursday. There was a downpour in the city for about an hour in the afternoon. The overcast conditions over the past couple of days had helped bring down the day temperature in the city, which had been reeling under heatwave-like conditions for the past few weeks.
Thursday’s spell of rain is expected to be beneficial to farmers, except for those waiting to harvest their kuruvai paddy crop. “The rain is welcome both in the irrigated and rainfed areas of the district. However, it could cause a slight delay in harvest of the kuruvai paddy crop in the Lalgudi block,” an Agriculture Department official said.
According to sources in the department, about kuruvai paddy had been raised on 4,300 hectares in Lalgudi block and of this, crops on about 1,850 hectares have been harvested so far. The harvest in the rest of the areas is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
Farmers in the rainfed areas have been waiting for the monsoon to set in to take up sowing of maize, cotton, and other crops.
Relief for farmers
N. Veerasekaran, State secretary, Bharthiya Kisan Sangh, said the rain over the past couple of days had come after a gap about two months, much to the relief of farmers. “It would be helpful for those taking up samba cultivation,” he said.
The rain will bring some relief to a section of farmers who had been complaining about lack of flow to the tail-end of branch irrigation channels.
Many parts of Pudukottai district too received moderate to heavy rain on Thursday.
Perungalur in Pudukkottai district recorded 5 cm of rain in 24-hour period ending at 8.30 a.m. on Thursday. Thuvakudi in Tiruchi and Madukkur in Thanjavur recorded 4 cm of rainfall, Adhiramapattinam in Thanjavur district, Padalur in Perambalur and Gandharvakottai and Adhanakottai recorded 3 cm each during the same period.
Published – October 10, 2024 07:15 pm IST