Rain, storm flatten wheat crop
Downpour also damages wheat, mustard at grain markets; more rain likely
CHANDIGARH: Rain and storm on Monday morning flattened standing wheat crop in several places in Punjab and Haryana and affected harvesting.
The downpour damaged wheat and mustard kept at grain markets. Also, the rain rendered thousands of wheat bags damp as they were kept in the open in various grain markets.
In Punjab, standing crop was flattened at many places in Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, Patiala, and Mohali districts.
There were reports of waterlogging of fields in Patiala. The wheat crop was flattened in some Ghanaur, Nabha, Bhadson, Patiala and Patran blocks. The meteorological department said the district received 1.1mm of rainfall.
NILOKHERI RECEIVES HIGHEST RAIN IN HRY
In Haryana, the meteorological department officials said the highest rainfall of about 30mm was reported at Nilokheri of Karnal, followed by 20mm each at Pehowa of Kurukshetra and Guhla of Kaithal district. Nearly 10mm rainfall was reported in Kaithal, Tajewala of Yamunanagar and Indri of Karnal district.
“The rain damaged our crop as it was lying in the open as there are not enough sheds to store the entire produce the Karnal grain market,” said Gurdeep Singh, a farmer from Yamunanagar.
EFFECT LIMITED, SAYS PUNJAB AGRI DEPT
But the Punjab agriculture department said the effect of the rain is limited to a few areas only and the harvesting won’t be delayed. “Reports by our field staff suggest that the effect of rain was only seen in Patiala, Mohali and Kapurthala districts. Here too, the loss to crop will be less than 1%,” director agriculture Navdeep Bains said.
Farmers in Haryana are worried that their wheat will not be procured for at least the next couple of days due to higher moisture content in the grain.
“The rain has delayed harvesting by nearly a week the farmers will have to pay more for harvesting the flattened crop,” said Ajay Kumar, a farmer from Indri.
STORAGE ISSUES
Raj Singh, head of department, meteorological and agriculture department (Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar) said, “We had already suggested that farmers reap their crop and store it in a dry area. We have special SMS techniques for farmers so they receive alerts before time and save their crop.”
Balwant Saharan, deputy director agriculture (Fatehabad) said, “The storm damaged the standing wheat crop. We have asked field officers to prepare a damage report, so that compensation can be given to farmers.”
The meteorological department has predicted more rain in the next 48 hours. The agriculture department officials advised the farmers to pump out the excess water from their fields to protect the crop from waterlogging and fungal disease attack.