Rain adds to woes of Rabi harvesters

Even as welcome showers in the last 24 hours brought down temperatures in more than half the districts of the state, UP farmers were faced by another challenge: how to protect their Rabi crop.

Even as welcome showers in the last 24 hours brought down temperatures in more than half the districts of the state, UP farmers were faced by another challenge: how to protect their Rabi crop.

Rain at this time of the year is not a new phenomenon and occurs almost every year but the delay in harvest caused by the lockdown has made the rain this year doubly painful for farmers.

Farmers, now harvesting wheat, mustard and pulses, are facing labour shortage and absence of transport facilities due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

“My wheat harvest on two-acre land was drenched in the rain last night. This has delayed wheat husking (removing the wheat grain from the husk). The process requires wheat to be dry. If it rains in the next two days, I will be in big trouble,” said Surat Ram Verma, a farmer in Malihabad, Lucknow.

Manoj Yadav, a farmer in Rae Bareli district fears the loss of his mustard harvest due to the rain. “The mustard seeds fell from the pod and got mixed with soil. This has made it impossible to recover them. I have lost around half my produce,” Yadav said.

According to experts, rain at this time of the year is not a new phenomenon and occurs almost every year but the delay in harvest caused by the lockdown has made the rain this year doubly painful for farmers. “Farmers had to delay harvesting by an average of eight days due to the lockdown. This left them very little time to finish harvesting before the rain hit them,” said Surendra Khetrapal, a Lucknow-based agriculture expert.