The storm that lashed the region last evening has taken a toll on the paddy crop in Amritsar and neighbouring districts with reports of lodging of crop received from several places. Gurnam Singh, a farmer from Umarpura village, is shattered. Talking to The Tribune, he said his entire paddy cropm spread over nine acresm had been destroyed. “I had put in so much money on paddy,” he lamented, wondering how he would repay his bank loan. He claimed that thousands of acres of paddy had been ruined by the storm. Amritsar Chief Agriculture Officer Dilbagh Singh Dhanju said that they had received reports on paddy fields having been flattened from different parts of the district. Though they were yet to compile a data on the crop loss, rough estimates suggested a loss of at least 2 per cent. However, Jamhuri Kisan Sabha leader Rattan Singh Randhawa claimed that the loss could be between 15 per cent and 20 per cent. He said paddy varieties like Sharbati and Basmati were the worst-hit. Gurdaspur Chief Agriculture Officer Dr RK Sabharwal said the strong winds led to lodging of the paddy crop, particularly in case of the early varieties that were nearing maturity. He said this was bound to affect paddy yield as well as quality. “It will cause discolouration, thereby adversely affecting its quality,” he explained. He put the crop loss in the district at up to 4 per cent. Tarn Taran Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Sukhdev Singh Sandhu said the damage wasn’t much in the district with reports of lodging of crop coming only from a few pockets of Khadur Sahib and Chohla Sahib. The loss in the district would not be much in terms of yield, only quality, he added. Losses not much in Bathinda district Bathinda: The paddy and cotton crops suffered no significant damage in the storm that struck on Sunday evening. District Agriculture Officer Rajinder Singh said only those fields that were watered recently may have been damaged. There was some loss to paddy in Faridkot areas such as Bander Jatana, Fidde, Chak Kalyan and Dhimawali. The storm flattened paddy in certain low-lying areas. — Jupinderjit Singh