The Centre on Monday said about 8-10 percent of the wheat crop is estimated to have been damaged due to recent untimely rains and hailstorms in key producing states. This comes as wheat crops across over 5.23 lakh hectares in three states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh — were affected by untimely rain, hail and strong winds, raising concerns about significant output losses and harvesting difficulties for farmers. In Punjab and Haryana, the damage to the wheat crop is being assessed, officials were quoted by PTI as saying.

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Wheat is a major rabi (winter) crop. Rains have come at a time when the crop was almost ready for harvesting.

Since the last two weeks, major wheat-growing states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have received unseasonal rains accompanied by thunderstorms, hailstorms and gusty wind due to the western disturbances. The untimely rains are expected to continue for a few more days.

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"There is a heavy loss to the wheat crop because of the inclement weather. Against an average yield of 20 quintals per acre, this time it will drop to 10-11 quintals an acre," worried grower Bhupinder Singh from village Badarpur in Punjab’s Mohali district, told PTI.

"There will be an average 50 percent yield loss in the wheat crop because of untimely rains and high-velocity winds," Singh said, adding, "If the rain continues for more days, the crop will completely submerge in it."

Ajay Singh, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh who owns two acres of land in Khajuraho, said, "We are noticing fungal disease in the wheat crop due to high moisture. The quality of grain will be affected."

#WATCH | Wheat & mustard crops of farmers destroyed due to heavy rains & hailstorms in Rohtak, Haryana (01.04.23) pic.twitter.com/qAvdnJqzRa

— ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2023Madhya Pradesh

According to the report, the total area of wheat cultivation in Madhya Pradesh is 95 lakh hectares. Out of this, "nearly one lakh hectare" has got affected in the recent rain and hailstorm, said a senior official of the Madhya Pradesh agriculture department."

"The crop loss is not much and even in the affected areas the lustre on the harvest is a little bit affected," the official added.

Rajasthan

In Rajasthan, around 3.88 lakh hectares of wheat crop out of the total sown area of 29.65 lakh hectare has been impacted due to the untimely rainfall, official sources were quoted as saying.

Besides wheat, other crops such as mustard, channa, barley and other vegetable 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.

Uttar Pradesh

More than 35,000 hectare of wheat crop has been damaged by the recent untimely rains, according to the information provided by the office of Relief Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh.

Most of the damage has been reported from nine districts of the state including Agra, Bareilly, Chandauli, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Prayagraj, Unnao and Varanasi.

"An estimated 1.25 lakh wheat farmers have been affected by the rains. The data regarding the losses and damages is being recorded. So far information about 43,142 of these farmers have been logged into our system," UP relief Commissioner Prabhu N Singh was quoted as saying.

Steps taken by the government to help farmers

Union Agriculture Secretary Manoj Ahuja told PTI the government will review the extent of damage caused to wheat and other rabi crops because of the fresh spell of untimely rains received in the last two to three days.

Meanwhile, Prabhu N Singh said: "The affected farmers will be provided relief by the government once the data is collected."

Besides, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Haryana Agriculture minister J P Dalal have directed the officials concerned to carry out special 'girdawari' to assess the crop loss.

Meanwhile, some state governments have taken steps to provide relief to farmers. For instance, the Punjab government had last week announced a 25 percent hike in the compensation for crop loss due to the weather.

In some parts of Madhya Pradesh, government procurement at minimum support price has begun.

Haryana Chief Minister ML 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 May.

However, despite the recent inclement weather, Agriculture Commissioner P K Singh asserted that the country's total wheat production will touch a record 112.2 million tonnes this year as per the second estimate of the agriculture ministry.

(With inputs from PTI)

First Published:Apr 2, 2023 3:46 PM IST