"He saved a portion of that and used it to sow 3 acres (1.2 hectares) of paddy. He placed his bet on the high-yielding pearl variety of aromatic Basmati rice. A good sale would have given him an earning of nearly 1 million rupees per acre ($11,400 per 0.4 hectares). But now, Singh's pearl paddy grains lie submerged in floodwater, buried under layers of soil and sediment."
"I cannot afford this shocking flood at this time in my life. We are ruined, Singh told Al Jazeera. This year's harvest was supposed to cover our debts. But this field is a lake now, and I don't know how I will start again. Singh also had to temporarily leave his home, along with his wife and two children, after the devastating floods hit their village earlier this month. What will I go back to? he wondered."
"Northern Indian states have been reeling under the impact of heavy monsoon rains, flash floods and swelling rivers that have submerged entire villages and thousands of hectares of farmland. In Punjab, where more than 35 percent of the population relies on agriculture, the situation is particularly grim. Here, farmers are facing the worst floods in the last four decades, with large tracts of paddy fields inundated just weeks before harvest."
Gurvinder Singh, a 47-year-old farmer in Gurdaspur, borrowed a million-rupee loan and used savings to plant three acres of high-yield pearl Basmati paddy. Expected earnings per acre were nearly one million rupees, but recent monsoon-driven floods submerged his crop under soil and sediment. Singh and his family were temporarily evacuated and now face deep uncertainty and mounting debts. Northern Indian states, especially Punjab where over 35 percent depend on agriculture, have experienced heavy rains, flash floods and swollen rivers that inundated villages and thousands of hectares of farmland. Gurdaspur ranks among the worst-affected districts with paddy fields flooded weeks before harvest.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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