Heavy rain and strong winds have played havoc with paddy crop in entire Doaba, Majha regions and in Patiala, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur, Barnala districts of Malwa. According to the initial survey done by Punjab Agriculture Department on Monday around 20 per cent lodging — which means standing crop getting flattened due to rain and wind — of paddy and Basmati crops has been reported from these areas. This is expected to cause yield loss and discolouring of grain to a large extent, which will impact the price the crop fetches. Around seven per cent loss reported to early paddy variety PR-126 and early Basmati variety PUSA 1509, which have already at the stage of ripening. Cotton crop too has suffered damage in Mansa and Faridkot districts. Agriculture department officials said that the damage would be more because the final assessment of damage can be done only after the rain stops. According to the survey, PUSA 1509 Basmati variety got damaged badly in Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts while early varieties of paddy like PR 126 took a hit in Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Sangrur and Ropar Districts. “After today’s rain the chances of recovery of the already ripened PUSA 1509 Basmati crop are very less as the grain was quite mature and with the crop falling flat in the fields, it will cause moisture gain and discolouring of the grain, resulting in huge loss of yield as well quality,” said a farmer Harjinder Singh Tanda from Tarn Taran. This Basmati variety starts coming to mandis by third week of September. TarnTaran got 499.5 mm rain against require 323.9 mm which is 54 per cent more than the normal. “All my crop on five-acres of land is falling flat and is under knee-deep water,” said farmer Harjit Singh of Chuharhwali village, adding that the fields in the low-lying are the worst affected. Another farmer Darbara Singh from Kapurthala said: “This time it was bumper crop and the MSP was also fixed for Rs 1780 per quintal but this rain has damaged the crop badly.” Kapurthala district got 30 per cent more rain than expected this time of the year. Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakunda) leader and farmer Sucha Singh of Patiala said that all the early varieties of the paddy had been damaged badly in the villages of Patiala district. He said that cotton crop too was affected in the district. Agriculture Development Officer from Mansa and cotton crop expert Harvinder Singh said that survey of cotton fields is on and at the initial stage it can be said that a damage of around six per cent is there so far. Director, Punjab Agriculture Department J S Bains said: “This survey is done during the rain and the damage would be much more when the final figures would come after rain.” Source - https://indianexpress.com