Farmers praying for no rain in states of Punjab, Haryana

With the arrival of wheat in terminal markets, all is not well as the weather still hold the keys. The partly cloudy weather in two major wheat producing states, Punjab and Haryana, has the farmers worried.

According to the Meteorology Department, Chandigarh — there are chances of light to moderate rainfall after a couple of days in few parts of Punjab and Haryana.

Officials in Haryana Agriculture Department said rain was not required at this stage especially when the crop was ready to be harvested.

Any rainfall of more than 10 mm accompanied by high velocity winds would lead to flattening, lodging of the crop along with other problems which eventually might affect productivity. According to the Additional Director Research at Punjab Agriculture University Ludhiana, the temperature this year has been more suitable for the wheat crop compared to the last rabi season. “On April 6 last year the temperature remained between 16 to 34 degree celsius. The temperature on 6 April 2011 ranged between 13 to 31 degree celsius. This is an indicaton of better yield. As a sudden increase in the temperature affects the grain filling.”

Agricultural scientists are expecting a yield of 15.7 million tonnes of wheat this year as compared to 15.1 million tonnes last year. Strong winds and hail storm can be harmful for the crop in the next few weeks, they said. Wheat has started arriving in the mandis of Haryana. 329 metric tonnes of wheat arrival has been recorded in various mandis of the state till yesterday.

The wheat arrival in terminal market this year has been delayed by 6-7 days because of rainfall and the temperature rising gradually. These issues may have resulted in delaying of the maturity of the crop thereby impacting its arrival in the markets.

On account of good rainfall, Haryana is eyeing 114 lakh metric tonnes production of wheat this year.