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40% wheat already damaged, more rains to pile up Punjab farmers’ woes
MeT dept has predicted rain, high-velocity winds on Tuesday and Wednesday; revenue dept officials say girdawari can be completed only after weather clears
Rain, high velocity winds and hailstorm reported in the state since March 24 have impacted at least 14 lakh hectares (40%) of 34.9 lakh hectares of wheat sown in Punjab during the rabi season.
“Chief minister Bhagwant Mann ordered girdawari (an assessment to know the crop loss) recently and we are assessing the damage,” said agriculture director Gurvinder Singh. The process can be completed only after rain stops, said an official of the state revenue department, which conducts loss assessment.
More rain and high velocity winds at scattered places in the state are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday. The weather department has predicted clear weather from April 6, which is expected to give respite to farmers.
According to the agriculture department, the overall yield will suffer by at least 15 to 20 per cent. The agriculture director said before rain, total wheat production was pegged at 170 to 175 lakh tonnes, but now it was expected to be around 145 to 150 lakh tonnes. He said the quality of grain would also be affected as there would be higher quantity of shrivelled and discoloured grain.
The food and civil supplies department, that procures food grain on behalf of the Centre through its four procurement agencies along with the Centre’s Food Corporation of India, has written to the union ministry for food and public distribution to relax the norms for wheat procurement.
A team of scientists from the union agriculture ministry is expected to visit the state to assess the losses. Scientists from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research run the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research in Karnal and visited Punjab to know the quantum loss. “The scientists have termed the loss as substantial on the lines of what we have reported,” said Gurvinder Singh.
A total of 1,872 mandis were opened in the state for procurement of wheat on April 1, however, until April 3, there haven’t been any arrivals. So far, only Rajpura mandi received two tractor-trailers with 8,000 quintals of grain.
This is the second consecutive rabi season when the wheat produce has been hit. Around 15 per cent of the yield was damaged last year and the economic loss to farmers was calculated to be ₹6,000 crore.
According to Punjab Agricultural University vice-chancellor Dr SS Gosal, it is worrying that the ready to harvest bumper wheat crop suffered damages in the second season in a row. “We are trying to study which varieties have withstood the vagaries of weather. Teams have been formed to visit the fields and study the trend,” said the vice-chancellor.
He said wheat cultivation by mulching method, without clearing paddy crop residue after the harvest, proved resilient to the vagaries of weather. “Crop sown using mulching method has seen negligible lodging. In future, we expect farmers to adopt the method for a robust crop,” said Dr Gosal.
