With the prevailing high temperature threatening to affect the wheat crop, the government today said the next 2-3 days will be crucial and it is closely monitoring the situation.
As per the Agriculture Ministry's data, the sowing of wheat -- the main rabi (winter) crop -- has been lagging so far due to lack of soil moisture following two consecutive drought years.
Sowing of wheat and other rabi crpos begins from October and harvest starts from April.
"Unfortunately, there were unseasonal rains and untimely rains in the last 2-3 seasons. Now, we are facing higher than normal temperature. There is no need to panic. We hope in the next 2-3 days, the temperature will come down," Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain told reporters here.
Sating that the next 2-3 days are going to be crucial for rabi crops, he said, "If weather conditions of longer term forecast given by Pune-based IMD comes true, it will be fine. We are watching the situation very closely."
"The current temperature is above the average normal level. However, we are not in a situation at present to assess the loss of production right now. The technical advisories suggest that there is no adverse impact so far on rabi wheat crop," he said.
Noting that the government fully realises the enormous challenge that climate change poses to the farm sector, Hussain said that officials of the Agriculture Ministry as well as Karnal-based Directorate of Wheat Research are closely monitoring the crop condition.
The ministry is sending advisories via SMS and advertisements, while on the other side the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) assessing the impact of climate change on production and productivity, he added.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the ICAR has released drought and flood-resistant seed varieties to cope with the challenges of climate change.
Wheat sowing is trailing by over seven per cent but the the area may improve as planting will continue till January 15, he added.
Last week, a senior Agriculture Ministry official had said that wheat production in India, the world's second- largest producer, is likely to fall below 90 million tonnes (MT) for the second year in a row in 2015-16 due to an unusually dry and warm winter.
Wheat sowing is lagging behind due to high temperature and this will impact wheat production by at least 5 per cent, the official had said.
Wheat output had declined to 88.95 million tonnes in 2014-15 due to to poor monsoon and unseasonal rains in February-March, as against a record 95.85 million tonnes achieved in the previous year.
