India: After Mahanadi floods, Odisha farmers at mercy of Sitrang

Farmers in Odisha’s coastal districts are rattled over the possibility of Rabi crops getting destroyed due to the cyclonic storm Sitrang. Floods in the Mahanadi basin earlier in August had wreaked havoc in the state. The crop is now in the flowering stage; however, several farmers have started harvesting the immature standing crops in panic, fearing greater losses by the cyclonic storm. Otherwise, paddy would have been harvested in the second week of December. The cyclonic storm was earlier predicted to make landfall in Odisha on October 24. Now it is expected to make landfall near the West Bengal-Bangladesh coasts on October 25. However, any thundershowers due to it would damage crops. Read more: Thousands marooned in Odisha as Mahanadi basin floods due to heavy rain The floods in August had utterly shattered the rural economy, said Suresh Panigrahi, a farmers’ leader and the president of the All Odisha Krushak Sabha. “Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore ...