TOBA TEK SINGH: Fog and frost have caused a great loss to farmers in Kamalia and Pirmahal tehsils who had sown vegetables and watermelon on their land near the Ravi bank.

The owners of citrus orchards in Toba Tek Singh and Gojra tehsils also faced damage to their produce during the last few days.

Many farmers including Rana Amjad, Mehr Akram, Razzaq Panwaar and Malik Asim this correspondent talked to in Kamalia and Pirmahal said they had sown watermelon on hundreds of acres of sandy land by digging six to eight feet deep to put in seeds and now as its creeping stems had grown and spread, heavy fog and frost had destroyed the crop.

They said their crops had earlier been destroyed owing to the Ravi flood and now they sowed watermelon and vegetables but without reaping the fruit.

Kamalia Agriculture Department Deputy District Officer Chaudhry Khalid Mahmood said watermelon and crops of vegetables of the farmers who had sown in tunnel sheds had faced no loss but small farmers had been affected as they simply covered the crops with dried grass or branches of wild bushes.

Similarly, orchard owners of Toba and Gojra who are known for best-quality production of kinnow said fog had damaged the tails of branches and more than 50pc of the fruit produce had been destroyed. As it could not be sold in the market, they said, they had faced heavy financial losses.

The growers of wheat are satisfied that fog has somehow proved beneficial for the growth of plants.