Untimely rains not to damage crops in north

Thanks to early ripening and swift harvesting and threshing of the wheat crop in the entire north-western Rabi belt, the bulk of the crop has escaped damage due to untimely heavy rains and hailstorm that lashed the region yesterday.

A sizeable part of the fresh produce has already been marketed. This is indicated by the wheat procurement by the government agencies having already crossed 12. 7 million tonnes, against 8.1 million tonnes till this date last year.

In fact, only about 15.8 million tonnes wheat was procured last year during the entire Rabi marketing season.

According to agriculture experts, though the early maturing of the crop due to early onset of summer had adversely affected the per hectare crop yield, but this has helped in avoiding the damage that could have been caused by the present inclement weather.

Normally, arrival of new wheat crop begins in the second week of April, peaking towards the end of the month. But this year, the fresh grains began hitting the mandis in late March and continued to pick up since then.

However, part of the harvested crop that is still lying in the fields runs the risk of quality loss if the weather does not clear up immediately. Prolonged wet spell can result in discolouration of grains, reducing their market value, experts point out.

Yesterday's hailstorm is reported to have damaged mango crop in Uttar Pradesh though it has benefited the apple crop in the hills of Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Rabi oilseeds crops, notably rapeseed and mustard, and pulses have already been harvested and marketed to a large extent.

The latest information available with the Food Corporation of India indicates that about 13.36 million tonnes of wheat had already arrived in mandis of the 12 wheat growing states till yesterday.

Of this, about 12.71 million tonnes had been bought by the public agencies under their price support operation.

Punjab, as usual, leads the other states in wheat arrivals and procurement.

Of about 8 million tonnes of fresh grains coming in the state's markets, the Central and state agencies have bought 7.89 million tonnes.

Similarly, in Haryana, 4.4 million tonnes of wheat has been procured by government agencies of the total arrival of 4.5 million tonnes. The procurement in the other states is relatively meagre.

Reports from states indicate that wheat harvesting has been completed in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka and is nearing completion in Madhya Pradesh.

Among the northern states, too, harvesting is practically over in Rajasthan and nearing completion in Haryana and Punjab.

Harvesting operations, especially of the late sown crop, are already in progress in Uttar Pradesh Bihar and West Bengal.