Paddy growers claim input cost has risen by Rs 3,000 per acre due to the weak monsoon Amritsar: With rain remaining elusive in Majha this monsoon, paddy growers have been struggling to save their crop. The frequent power crisis has only added to their woes. The worst affected are the farmers with small land holding who cannot afford to use generators for running tubewells for irrigation. They fear the input cost would surpass the price they would fetch during procurement. Of the four districts in Majha region, Amritsar and Tarn Taran received less rainfall as compared to Gurdaspur and Pathankot. Amritsar Chief Agriculture Officer Dilbagh Singh said the district received only 131 mm rainfall till August 20 this year as compared to 270 mm in the concurring period last year. In Tarn Taran, 33 mm of rainfall has been recorded as compared to 165 mm last year. Even the rainfall that was received was scattered and there were villages that didn’t get any rain at all. He said the input cost had gone up by at least Rs 3,000 per acre due to weak monsoon. Dilbagh Singh said if the dry weather conditions persisted in the coming days, it may affect the yield of paddy, particularly of basmati variety, besides making the crop vulnerable to a disease, leafroller blight. He said not only paddy, other crops too were bearing the brunt. “As the entire focus of the farming community is towards saving paddy, cultivation of vegetables, sugarcane and fodder has been adversely hit. It is affecting the quantity as well as quality of the crops,” he said. Kundan Singh, a farmer from Kot Sanghar village in Tarn Taran, said, “The rainfall has been scanty and our problems have been aggravated by frequent power failures.” He said though they had sown paddy, making it survive had become a daily struggle. They have no option but to shell out money to keep generators running as they were getting only five-hour power supply. Dilbagh Singh, a farmer from Lalu Ghuman village, said they were not getting adequate canal water supply either, which was taking a toll on their crop. He said the unfavourable weather conditions had not only hit the paddy crop, but also fodder production for their livestock. Tarn Taran Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Sukhdev Singh Sandhu said paddy had been sown on 1.7 lakh hectares of land in the district. He said though farmers were somehow managing to irrigate their crops, their input costs had risen manifold. The crop had been hit by leafroller blight in some blocks in this district too. Apart from paddy, fruit production had also been hit due to less rainfall. Horticulture Department Deputy Director Baaz Singh said kinnow, pear and peach production had been affected. He said the fruits had not acquired their normal size due to poor rainfall. He said even if it rained now, only kinnow growers would benefit from it.