Experts fear damage to kharif crops

Almost 27,000 acres of farm land has been flooded due to excessive rains in Punjab, raising fears that flooding could cause extensive damage to the state kharif crops, especially paddy.

Almost 27,000 acres of farm land has been flooded due to excessive rains in Punjab, raising fears that flooding could cause extensive damage to the state kharif crops, especially paddy.

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“We have received reports that 17,000 acres of agricultural land in Samrala and 10,000 acres of land in Patiala have been inundated with water due to continuous rains”, Punjab, Director of Agriculture, B.S. Sidhu said.

Majority of the sub-merged land is planted with paddy and some fodder crops. “If the water level recedes within two days, then there will not be much loss to paddy crop. Although crop grown in low lying areas will be damaged due to flooding of fields in the affected areas,” he said.

Heavy rains for the second day have thrown life out of gear in this region. Still, farm experts point out the rains would speed up paddy cultivation in Punjab where over 20 lakh hectares have already been sown with paddy crop. Punjab is eyeing 27 lakh hectares under paddy crop this season against 28.20 lakh hectares brought in last year.