Crop damage due to unseasonal rains in India

India’s unseasonal rains and high winds in mid-March is causing a huge damage to rabi crops. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan are likely to be more hit with damages in a wide variety of crops such as Potato, Mustard, Bangal Gram, wheat etc. Fruit crops such as oranges, Pomo, grapes, mango are more hit compared to other fruits. All these crop damages could possibly lead to decrease in productivity of these crops, hence, reduction in production-both quality as well as quantity. Due to protest from Opposition and farmers, GOI (Government of India) is thinking of some steps which can be helpful for farmers in these hard times.

According to GOI estimates, in 2014-15 total crop production may stand at 25.70 croretonnes, which is about 3% less than previous year (2013-14) production of 26.55 croretonnes. According to one senior scientist from reputed agricultural institution, most of the pulses are in harvesting stage, so, these untimely rains can play a havoc in reducing the production of these crops. So, these rains will play a pivotal role in reducing the yields of some major crops such as mustard, Bengal gram, black gram etc., which may ultimately lead to spike in prices of these crops. More rains in future can lead to more damage.

According to Dr. Indu Sharma of Wheat Research Institute, located at Karnal (Haryana), wherever wheat farmers have irrigated their fields just few days’ back- these more water in form of rains have done more damage instead of benefitting it. Late sown rabi wheat i.e wheat sown after 20th November is likely to get more damaged compared to other wheat crop. High winds accompanied with rains are causing more damage to crops.

According to Mr. DevendraFadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra State, approx. 17,000 hectares of crop land could have been damaged due to these untimely rains. To estimate the actual loss in terms of rupees, instructions have already been given to surveillance team. Opposition MLA demanded a detailed insurance scheme for crops based on climate in Maharashtra. In Nashik district of Maharashtra about 50% of the crop is damaged due to these rains. In Uttar Pradesh, due to high velocity winds accompanied with rains, about 8 lakh hectares of land containing crops like Bengal gram and mustard and about 90 lakh hectares of wheat crop is severely damaged. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh visited some of these areas for inspection. Designated authorities have been given direction to look into this matter on an urgent basis and to allot suitable funds for agriculture budget. Likewise, Rajasthan state Agricultural warehouse cooperation chief Mr. BabuLal Gupta has also conveyed that about 1015 crops have been heavily damaged in Kota region of Rajasthan, due to which production is set to decrease for these crops.