After a long dry spell during the hot summer, the overcast sky for a long time and the rain, coupled with fast winds, is not good for farmers as it may damage the standing paddy and cotton crops.
"However, so far the rain has not caused much damage and crops are in a good condition," said Atma Singh, chief agriculture officer.
"Fast wind makes ears of paddy plants strike with each other, which leads to empty grain shells flattening of the crop," he said.
Agriculture experts also believe that due to the long dry spell, major crops have been mostly free of the attack of insects or many kinds of fungus diseases, which may rather lead to more crop yield as the farmers compensated less rain by artificial means of irrigation.
"We do not expect any loss to the crops due to the cloudy sky if it does not last longer. A long spell of rainfall or overcast sky may have adverse effect on the crops because paddy plants are developing ears in most areas and cotton is also on full flowering stage," said Amandeep Keshav, project director of the agriculture technology management agency (ATMA), Faridkot.
"Prolonged cloudy weather leads to the possibility of pest and fungus attacks," he added.
"The rain and fast winds are rather harmful now because crops have mostly passed the phase of dry hot season. In case it rains, it would affect flowering of the cotton plants. It may lead to hollow or empty grain shells in paddy, leading to decrease in yield besides discolouration of the grain," said Baljinder Singh, a farmer from Kotkapura.
"Prolonged cloudy weather leads to the possibility of pest and fungus attacks," he added.
"The rain and fast winds are rather harmful now because crops have mostly passed the phase of dry hot season. In case it rains, it would affect flowering of the cotton plants. It may lead to hollow or empty grain shells in paddy, leading to decrease in yield besides discolouration of the grain," said Baljinder Singh, a farmer from Kotkapura.
According to farmers, sunny days are required for most of the crops now for quality and quantity.
The earlier dry spell led many farmers to pump in more money to save their crops as they had to use generators or diesel engines to run tubewells to make water available for irrigation.