According to sources as overcast skies loom over Thanjavur district on Tuesday, Mari Susai is sitting in his field, taking stock of the damage that Friday's cyclone unleashed. As per report acres of purple and green sugarcane crops that were to be primed and plucked for Pongal 2019, now lay tilted, threatening to wither away. Meanwhile smaller saplings have survived the onslaught of the cyclone, the crops that have grown four to five feet in height have a tough road ahead.
Mari a farmer from Valamarkottai said “This is the main harvest this season and it has been ruined. We can try our best but what can be done? The winds have torn them down and then the rains came and washed away the soil”. Furthermore Dorai Rasu, another farmer working in a field adjoining Mari's is gathering the disintegrated soil with both hands, hoping to coax them back into a sturdy union. Hence the main focus of these sugarcane farmers over the next couple of days is to restore their crops to the extent possible.
Moreover with limited water, they hope to distribute the nourishment quicker across the crops, as opposed to spraying them individually. He says, pointing to his friends Mari and Dorai “Whether we are compensated for these losses or not, we have to rebuild our lives ourselves. We have to start. Some of us have lost our homes, some of us have not and he has not, so he will help them”.
