New Delhi:
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday that there is not much impact on standing rabi crops such as wheat due to the current untimely rainfall and hailstorm, according to a preliminary report.
“According to the preliminary assessment, there is not much impact on the rabi crops. We are yet to receive a soil report from the state governments,” Narendra Singh Tomar told PTI on the sidelines of an event.
Wheat is the main rabi crop, with harvesting underway in some states. Mustard and chickpeas are other important rabi crops.
Since the past three days, many parts of the country have experienced unusual showers, hail and gusts of wind brought on by Western unrest.
On Monday, the central government said there are no concerns about mustard and chickpea (chana) crops as most of it has been harvested. In the case of horticultural crops, localized hailstorms may have affected some crops such as banana and potato.
The government has forecast a record wheat production of 112.2 million tonnes for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June).
Meanwhile, IMD has advised farmers of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to postpone the harvest.
Assam farmers have been asked to postpone the harvesting of fruits and vegetables and immediately move the products already harvested to safer places. Farmers have been told to postpone sowing corn in Sikkim and sowing jute in West Bengal south of the Himalayas.
Farmers must drain excess water from fields, mechanically support horticultural crops and stake vegetables, use hail nets to protect apple, pear, plum and peach orchards in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand and orchards in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, East Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh .
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