The rabi crop faces a serious weather risk on the eve of harvesting as five more bursts of unseasonal rain are forecast in the weeks ahead, putting further pressure on farmers as stormy weather in the past few days has damaged crops worth thousands of crores according to elected representatives of affected regions.

The weather office says the next rain-bearing weather system called 'western disturbance' would strike the Himalayas on March 5, and two days after that another such weather phenomenon would hit the hilly states as well as plains of northwestern and central India. The previous bout of rain had hit huge tracts of land under wheat, mustard, yellow peas, potato and other horticulture crop.

The forecast of weather in the days ahead is gloomy. "We expect a series of western disturbances during March, starting from March 8th, 16th and 21 st, which could impact the winter crops. In April we also expect rains on 1st and 14th. The rains will be spread across north, north west and eastern states with intensity of rainfall on March 8th and 21st likely to be heavy or moderate," said Jatin Singh, CEO, Skymet- a private weather forecasting company.

March rainfall can be disastrous said Ajay Jakhar, chairman of Delhi-based farmer association Bharat Krishak Samaj. "If the rains come a month ahead of the harvesting time it is always disastrous. It can hit production for a crop like wheat by 20-30%. If rain is accompanied by hailstorm and wind the losses can go by over 50%," he said. Crop was damaged across 35 lakh hectare area in Punjab and 25 lakh hectare in Haryana followed by 50,000 hectare in Maharashtra, Avinash Rai Khanna, BJP MP from Punjab and in charge of Jammu & Kashmir said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. "We expect a crop loss of over Rs 1,000 crore due to the rains over the past few days," he said.

Samajwadi Party's national general secretary Ramgopal Yadav said that more than half of the potato crop in UP may be damaged. Wheat and mustard are similarly affected by rain and wind, he said. "Once it becomes sunny the mustard seeds which were soon to be harvested will just fall on the ground. In Bundelkhand huge damage has been reported of yellow peas and arhar crop," he said. Congress leader Pramod Tiwari claimed that losses in Uttar Pradesh alone were to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore.

In Punjab, planting of maize, sunflower and mentha has also been affected by the excessive rains. "The vegetables crops have also been affected but actual assessment will take few days till report from the districts arrive," says, joint director, Haryana Horticulture Department, Dharam Singh Yadav. Unseasonal rains have hit vegetables crops including tomato brinjal, bitter gourd, beans, cauliflower and potato, which has not been harvest in one lakh acres in the state. "The extent of rotting of potato due to water logging will depend on how weather unveils in coming days," says general secretary Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers, Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha.

"Rain in March is rare and if it comes in moderation, it threatens the output of winter crops such as wheat, mustard and other rabi crops that is ready for harvest during March and April,"said ameteorologist at Skymet.

Nalin Rawal, chief agri research analyst, Skymet weather Services, said that rains had damaged over 50-65% of the area (total area under wheat is 30.65 million hectare) under wheat crop. "There can be a 20-25% loss on wheat crop," he said. The mango crop production could be hit by 25% due to the unseasonal heavy rains said Rawal.

Skymet said that rains over Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has led to a 30- 40% loss of crop sown on 6.3 million hectare. Pulses, particularly yellow peas and channa, have been also affected as almost 25% of production has been impacted.

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/