Northern farmers in woe as Cyclone Yaas leaves a trail of destruction
While the country is struggling with a pandemic-hit economy coupled with the increasing cost of living, the Northern farmers lamented that the recent Cyclone, Yaas, made things worse for them.
They said some of their crops and cultivation were destroyed by the cyclone.
Yaas that passed through the province last week destroyed banana and papaya crops worth millions of rupees.
Considering the lack of facilities available to sell their harvest during the current travel restrictions, several large-scale farmers said they did not harvest their crops for many days as they were waiting till the lockdown was lifted. But due to this, most of their crops were destroyed by heavy rains and strong winds.
Arulnathan Uthanan (42), a farmer from Mulankaavil in Kilinochchi runs a banana cultivation on a four acre land. He said strong winds damaged more than half of his crops within a few hours.
“The worst part is that we cannot sell our harvest these days. Currently, I have 300-500kg of kolikuttu bananas, but I am unable to sell my produce at a decent price. If I cannot sell this within a week, then it will only be discarded as food for livestock," Mr Uthanan said.
Like Mr Uthanan, hundreds of farmers in the North were badly affected by bad weather experienced last week and were unable to sell their harvest due to the ongoing travel restrictions.
John Thanaraj, Secretary of the Vinayagar Farmers Federation Cooperative Society in Mulankaavil, said Cyclone Yaas destroyed 35 acres of papaya and 29-32 acres of banana cultivation last week.
In Nedunkerni in Vavuniya, Thurairasa Thamilchelvan is clueless about how he is going to support his family as his entire papaya cultivation of 700 plants was completely destroyed.
"The total loss is over Rs 800,000. I am not sure how I can repay the loan I obtained for the cultivation," he said. Meanwhile, farmers in Kilinochchi said they are unable to sell more than 200,000kgs of pumpkin, and those who come forward to buy their produce quote a cheap price which they cannot afford.
Sellan Jeyarasa from Puliyankulam in Vavuniya was engaged in passion fruit cultivation, but he had to stop cultivating the fruits as he had no way of selling his produce these days.
"Last year one kilo of passion fruit was sold at Rs 400 but the price eventually decreased up to Rs 150. Nowadays, traders ask for Rs 70 per kilo. I cannot even recover the expenses of using a water pump with this price. Therefore I have decided to abandon the cultivation for now," Mr Jeyarasa said.