Some damage to rabi crops due to unseasonal rains; yet to receive full report from states: Centre

With several states, mainly wheat growing areas, receiving unseasonal rains and hailstorms in the last two days, the Centre on Monday said there has been some damage to the standing crops and it is waiting for the ground reports.

Wheat, mustard and chickpeas are major rabi crops. Since mustard and chickpeas are already harvested, there is no concern. In the case of horticultural crops, localised hail storms might have affected some crops like bananas and potatoes. However, wheat, the main rabi crop, harvesting of which has started in some parts of the country, said the top officials in the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

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"There has been some damage. We have not received an assessment report on the extent of damage from the state governments," Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary said here.

Speaking separately, Agriculture Commissioner P K Singh said untimely rains were observed over wheat growing states of Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in the last two days. Some parts have received fewer showers of rain and that would benefit the crop. "The assessment of the damage is being made by the state governments which will submit a report in the next 2-3 days," he said.

Even if some percentage damage happens in 2 lakh hectares of wheat area, Singh said it would hardly have any impact considering the total wheat acreage of 343.2 lakh hectares in the current year. In the case of mustard and chickpeas crops, most of these have been harvested. Mustard harvesting in some areas of Rajasthan and Haryana is still due, he added.

The government has projected a record wheat output of 112.2 million tonnes for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June).

Meanwhile, IMD (India Meteorological Department), has advised farmers of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to postpone harvesting. Assam farmers have been asked to postpone harvesting of fruits and vegetables and move the already harvested produce to safer places immediately. Farmers have been told to postpone maize sowing in Sikkim and jute sowing in Sub-Himalayan West Bengal.