Moderate to heavy rains coupled with high velocity winds during the night have made paddy growers anxious as it is anticipated that they might opt for early harvesting to avoid damages caused by the inclement weather instead of waiting for the moisture content in the grain to drop to the optimum level.

The showers have also caused damage to newly sown vegetable crops as farmers said that the soil dampened by rain would harden with sunlight and delay germination of seeds.

The showers and winds also caused damage to trees in many areas resulting in power supply disruption. High velocity winds started blowing around 10 pm on Monday after which power supply was cut off in most city areas. In many areas where trees fell over the transmission lines, power supply could be restored only in the morning.

In rural areas, agriculturists these days are busy preparing fields for vegetable crops such as peas, potatoes and other summer season vegetables. Farmers said that the time window for sowing vegetable crops is small and the delay caused by showers has increased moisture level in the soil which may prove to be costly for the farmers.

“The vegetable growers cultivate three crops a year. Delay in sowing vegetables would delay sowing of wheat. With delay of each week in sowing wheat, the yield drops by nearly two quintals,” said a farmer Gurbir Singh, adding that a large number of farmers have already completed the sowing of vegetables. The farmers stated that the rain drops hitting at a high velocity also damage the tender saplings of germinated seeds.

Chief Agriculture Officer Jatinder Singh Gill said, “The farmers should not go for early harvesting of paddy crop as it would cause problems in selling the produce.” He added that government procurement agencies would not purchase produce with more moisture content. As such, the farmers would have to sell it to private traders who usually offer a price lower than the MSP.”

Source - https://www.tribuneindia.com