Amid persistent high inflation and food security woes, farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are worried about their wheat crops due to untimely rain, hailstorm and strong winds. As per a PTI report, more than 5.23 lakh hectare across the three states have been affected by the recent weather, triggering fears of huge yield loss for farmers and harvesting challenges.
India is one of the major producers of wheat, a key staple for a significant population, and the crop damage scenario also comes against the backdrop of persisting high inflation and food security woes globally amid geopolitical uncertainties.
Around 5.23 lakh hectare of wheat crop is estimated to have been damaged in the three states due to the inclement weather. The assessment of wheat crop damage in Punjab and Haryana is underway.
Wheat was sown in around 34 million hectare of area this year, the government is estimating a record 112.2 million tonne wheat output in the ongoing 2022-23 crop year (July-June), the officials told PTI.
Union Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja told PTI that on Monday the government will discuss with the state governments and take stock of the extent of damage caused by the weather in the last couple of days to wheat and other rabi crops.
Wheat is a major rabi (winter) crop. Rains have come at a time when the crop was almost ready for harvesting. In some parts of Madhya Pradesh, the government procurement at minimum support price has begun.
Major wheat-growing states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have received unseasonal rains accompanied by thunderstorms, hailstorms and gusty winds due to the western disturbances, in the last two weeks. The untimely rains are expected to continue for a few more days.
A wheat grower from Mohali said that there is a heavy loss of wheat crop due to the inclement weather, from an average of 20 quintals, this time it will drop to 10-11 quintals.
Singh, who has grown the winter crop over 34-acre of land in Badarpur, said at some places in his fields, the crop has also flattened because of high-velocity winds.
Aside from this farmers have noticed fungal disease due to high moisture, which can affect the quality of grains.
The total area of wheat cultivation in Madhya Pradesh is 95 lakh hectare, out of which "nearly one lakh hectare" has got affected in the recent rain and hailstorm, said a senior official of the Madhya Pradesh agriculture department.
In Rajasthan too, about 3.88 lakh hectare of wheat crop out of total sown area of 29.65 lakh hectare has been impacted due to the untimely rainfall, PTI quotes official sources.
Besides wheat, mustard, channa, barley and other vegetable crops have been impacted in Rajasthan. About 1.54 lakh hectare and 1.29 lakh hectare of mustard and channa crops, respectively, have been damaged due to rains in the state, the sources added.
According to Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) scientist and wheat breeder Rajbir Yadav, "In hailstorm-hit areas, the wheat crop loss is certain. The extent of damage can only be ascertained when farmers get their produce to mandis." In some places, unseasonal rains have caused lodging in wheat crops due to which standing crop falls. However it is difficult to quantify the extent of damage, it can reduce the quality of the grain and may lead to harvesting losses, he said.
In such a situation, the farmers would face challenges in harvesting as it is difficult to pick up the fallen wheat crop by a combine harvester, while manual harvesting is labour incentive and costly, he told PTI.
Some state governments have taken steps to provide relief to farmers, Punjab government had last week announced a 25 per cent hike in the compensation for crop loss due to vagaries of weather.
While, Haryana Chief Minister M L Khattar had said the farmers can register the crop loss on the e-Fasal Kshatipurti portal and the compensation will be provided to all the farmers by the month of May.