TAXILA: The recent rains played havoc with harvested wheat crop lying in the open, causing huge loss to the farmers.

The rain which began on Monday and continued until Tuesday brought a pleasant change in weather but ruined the farmers` year-long toiling.

Talking to this reporter on Wednesday, a number of farmers and wheat growers said hailstorm in March and April had badly damaged their wheat crop and caused monetary losses.

`Unusual weather pattern during the last three months has cost us heavily,` said Ayaz Mehmood, a Taxila grower.

Shaukat Ayub, who is the chairman of Kissan Council, blamed unavailability of sufficient number of thrashers for the loss the farmers suffered due to rain. He said small growers were the real sufferers.

`Unavailability of thrasher machines has added to their woes,` he added.

Ijaz Ahmed, a wheat grower of Wah, said as everyone was trying to get his wheat crop trashed, the thrasher machine operator were allegedly exploiting the situation and charging exorbitant rates.