CUDDALORE: Farmers in the district received a major setback as around 80 per cent of crops such as paddy, sugarcane, banana, jackfruit, mango, coconut and cashew have been uprooted by the monster cyclone Thane. “Agriculture will take seven years to limp back to normalcy. We do not have any other option to run our livelihood as we are totally dependent on our lands that was ravaged by the cyclone,” said farmers of Ramapuram village.The villages situated on Caper Hill here were the worst-hit, as the cyclone directly struck this place without any hindrances because of its elevated location. Various crops planted on thousands of acres on the hill were destroyed. Farmers are expecting Rs 20,000 per acre for paddy crop, Rs30,000 per acre for banana, Rs 25,000 per acre for sugarcane, Rs10,000 per acre for coconut trees and Rs 3,000 for rose plants as compensation. Farmers expect government to waive their loans in national and co-operative banks.“If we plant cashew and jackfruit saplings now, it will take more than seven years to give us yield. We do not have money to resume farming. We had already mortgaged our lands in banks. Hence, we cannot think of taking another loan and we cannot even sell our lands. We also borrowed money from local money lenders on interest. So, we cannot borrow money again. Now, government is our only hope,” said R Dakshinamoorthy, a farmer of Ramapuram.It was these villages that fed thousands of farmers when they took asylum on Caper Hill during the 2004 tsunami. But tsunami had destroyed only the coastal areas, Thane hit the entire district.“We cooked food and served it to fishermen for more than a week after tsunami. We gave them bunch of bananas and other crops then. Now, we do not have rice to cook. Our crops had been spoiled. Our life is gone,” rued farmers of S Puthur.Sagunthala of Andikuppam breaks into tears: “We had planted mango, cashew and jackfruit trees, and in return they take care of our lives. Now we are left alone as all the trees were uprooted.”
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