Drought like situation plays spoilsport for crops in Himachal

KANDAGHAT - The drought like situation in Kandaghat area of Himachal Pradesh has damaged a major area of vegetable crops.

Over 60 percent of the crops have been damaged, delaying the transplantation in the area.

Farmers are worried that this year they might have to bear heavy losses due to drought.

“I am a nursery grower and as you can see my area, maximum of my area is empty because of draught and when it rains then only farmers come to us and they take plants from us and now when only the rain comes then only we start working and otherwise we are idle,” said Inder Singh, a nursery grower.

“Our cash crop is tomato, capsicum and cauliflower and our economy depends on these vegetable and because of drought all our crops have been damaged and by this time we usually start with the tomato crop but this year because of drought everything is finished,” said Ram Singh, a farmer.

This year, the crops of capsicum, brinjal and tomato had already damaged.

The nursery owners are worried that if there are no timely rains farmers won’t be able to produce vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and tomato this year.

However, there has been an increase in vegetable cultivation area from 25,000 hectares to 50,000 hectares in the state during the last few years.

The Solan belt is popularly known as the area of Red Gold because of its tomato production. By Hemant Chauhan (ANI)