Farmers fear crop damage as rain lashes parts of Haryana, Punjab

Light to moderate rain lashed few places in Punjab and Haryana on Thursday, increasing the worries of farmers in the two agrarian states over unseasonal showers destroying their crops at harvesting stage.

Among other places the rain lashed Chandigarh, Mohali, Ropar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Panchkula, Kurukshetra and Kalka.

The local meteorological department has forecast more rains at few places in the two states until Friday.

No to rains
The wheat procurement is set to begin soon and if heavy rains or hailstorm occur at
this stage, they can be damaging, said Punjab mandi board president Ajmer Singh Lakhowal.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) president B S Rajewal said, “No farmer wants rains at this stage, even if these were to fall down in the form of drops of gold.”

“The wheat and oilseed crops are ready and if there is heavy rain or hail followed by high velocity winds, then farmers, who are eyeing a bumper crop, will suffer heavy loss,” the president added.

A farmer from Kurukshetra said we are hoping the weather holds good otherwise it can damage their wheat crop.

Lakhowal said heavy rains recently had caused some damage to the crops at some places in Punjab, for which special girdwari (revenue survey) had been ordered.

Western disturbance

A MeT officer said current change in the weather was due to a western disturbance over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu &Kashmir.

The maximum temperatures in the plains of Punjab and Haryana have been settling in the range of 26-29 degrees Celsius during the past few days, which is two-three degrees below normal, the MeT officer said.

The days will be partly cloudy in Haryana and Punjab and light rain or thunder showers may occur at some places followed by thunder squalls with wind speed exceeding 45 kmph at isolated places.