Rajnagar: Watermelon farmers in the flood-prone areas under this block in Kendrapara district are a worried lot these days as an unidentified disease has affected their crops.
According to a report, the ‘mystery’ disease has shattered the hopes of these cultivators as it has caused the watermelons to break open and rot much before harvesting. This has come as a double whammy for the farmers who had lost their paddy crops due to flood in the last Kharif season.
The fruits are being affected when they grow to the size of one kg. The farmers have applied pesticides on the advice of agriculture and horticulture experts but that is not helping them in any way.
The unknown disease is affecting their crops when the watermelons grow to the size of 1 to 1.5 kg. They are trying to tide over this crisis by harvesting the watermelons when they are still small, but traders are refusing to pay even Rs 5 per kg.
Loss of crop due to the ‘mystery’ disease has pushed the farmer into distress as they stare at a bleak future ahead. They had borrowed a lot from the local money lenders and other sources but with crop loss they are now clueless as to how they would repay the loans. The private money lenders and self-help groups from whom they had borrowed heavily are now pestering them to repay their loans.
Reports said that farmers have cultivated watermelons in over 400 acres in Balichandrapur village under Rajpur panchayat of the block. As the harvesting time has arrived, they are caught in dilemma.
The watermelons are harvested when they grow up to the size of 3 to 5 kg. However, this year the watermelons are cracking and subsequently decomposing on the farmlands even before the harvesting. As a result, over 200 farmers engaged in cultivation of watermelons have been pushed to the brink.
Farmers Bailochan Rout, Braja Kishore Sethi and Abhaya Kumar Sethi of Balichandrapur village had jointly taken up watermelon cultivation on 17 acres. The three had purchased watermelon seeds at Rs 6,000 per kg and ploughed the land themselves.
They had irrigated their farmland with the help of motor pump as it did not rain in their area. They were planning to harvest their crops from the second week of March but fate decided otherwise.
They were expecting to harvest over 100 quintals from each acre and a total crop of 1,700 quintals from their l 17-acre farmland. This could have helped them to tide over the losses which they faced during their paddy cultivation in the last Kharif season. However, as ill luck would have it, instead of growing big in size, the watermelons cracked and decomposed.
Another farmer Ganesh Sethi said watermelon plants have withered and small watermelons are getting decomposed. When contacted, farmer Bailochan Rout said he has lost his sleep pondering over repayment of loans.
Meanwhile, Residents have demanded that Agriculture department should rush a high-level team to the area to review the crop damage and make provision of financial assistance to the affected farmers.