Even as a group of salt farmers, after a back-breaking work, was gearing up to take up harvest of their produce from the salt pans on a full scale in a remote Biramgunta village, near Kothapatnam in Prakasam district, the devastating cyclonic storm ''Asani'' left the salt farmers shocked washing out the entire produce in no time.
Salt production normally peaks in May. ‘‘We cannot expect any salt production for the next one month,” laments a salt farmer P Anjaneyulu, while repairing the bunds of his salt pan in the village with the rains abating.
The heavy rain induced by ‘Asani’ has come at the most inopportune time. If there are any further rains. the farmers cannot produce any salt this year, says K. Venkateswarlu Reddy, another salt farmer from Motumala village, in a conversation with The Hindu. He has taken up salt production in one and half acres of land.
