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“The final impact on the output of wheat and mustard will depend on how the weather holds in the next few days. If it dries from here onwards, the damage can be recovered; else, the situation could be bad,” said Indu Sharma, director of Karnal-based Directorate of Wheat Research.
According to her, in areas where farmers have sown their wheat crop late and the grain size is still small, efforts should be made to drain out water from the fields as soon as possible.
“It is a little early to get an absolutely clear picture,” a Reuters news quoted J S Sandhu, deputy director general at the state-funded Indian Council of Agricultural Research, as saying. “But my people are going to fan out to get an accurate idea.”
“Those areas where the crop has been sown early, particularly in Rajasthan, the rains could lead to drop in per-hectare yields as the showers have been heavy and intense,” said another official.
Wheat, mustard and chana are the main crops grown during the rabi season in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which have witnessed heavy unseasonal rains and high winds over the past three days.
According to Skymet Weather Services, the untimely showers and heavy winds have caused widespread damage to rabi crops, vegetables and fruits in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
“Though the degree of damage is still uncertain, rain that is likely to continue for another 24 hours is most likely to damage 20-40 per cent of the wheat crop in these areas and other rabi crops like mustard,” Skymet said.
The rabi crop, ready for harvest in March-April, does not require rain during March. Rabi crops are either at a harvesting or developing stage and prone to damage in heavy rains. In Maharashtra, Skymet said vegetables such as cauliflower, tomato and coriander in Junnar, Ambegaon and Khed areas were the worst affected.
Officials said yields of wheat crop, sown on time, might drop 10-20 per cent. Heavy rains continued to lash most parts of Punjab and Haryana. Punjab has received an average rainfall of 34 mm with maximum rainfall witnessed in Ropar (73 mm), Patiala (57 mm) Mohali (65 mm), NawanShahar (66mm) and Tarn Taran (43 mm).
"In the wake of continuous rain and damage to production, rise in prices of essential food items is likely over next few days," it added. Skymet further said that wheat production is likely to be hit by heavy rainfall in Pilibhit, Bijnore and Lakhimpur Khiri in Uttar Pradesh. Due to heavy rain, crops of wheat, groundnut and cotton have been adversely affected in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Rain has also washed away the quality production of mangoes and grapes as several places in Konkan region received rainfall exceeding 30 mm during few days.
Rain across Gujarat and Rajasthan has damaged the quality of several standing crops like wheat, jeera and mango.
A. R. Pathak, vice chancellor of Junagadh Agriculture University said, "Winter crops like wheat, jeera (cumin), coriander seed, onion and mango have fear of huge damage in quality and disease also possible in crops."
90 per cent of the flowering in mango crop at Saurashtra area of Gujarat has has been lost.
"Recent rain will affect the color and weight of jeera. In present weather condition, jeera crop quality may harm by 40 percent and damage the crop by 5-10 percent that may decrease production more than estimate", said Bhaskar Shah, chairman, Indian Spice and Foodstuff Exporters' Association (ISFEA).
According to Shah, jeera production may about 1.75 to two lakh tonnes in this year as against 4.40 lakh tonnes of previous year.
