Warm winter affects wheat production in Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh did not observe a chilled winter this year, but the wheat growing farmers are still shivering.

The comparatively warm winter in the state is likely to severely affect the production of wheat in Chhattisgarh this year. The productivity of wheat in the state is expected to drop by 15 to 20 per cent during the Rabi marketing season 2012-13.

Though wheat is not the main crop in the otherwise rice growing Chhattisgarh, farmers still take the crop in a few pockets. Besides local consumption, the state government also procures wheat from farmers for seed germination and other experiments.

This year, the agriculture department had set a target to produce 252980 Tonnes of wheat that was sowed in some 182000 hectare of area. The department had estimated a productivity of 1390 kilograms per hectare.

“In the month of January, flowering in wheat crop has started that is unusual and not healthy for the productivity,” agriculture scientist Dr Sanket Thakur said. The productivity this year because of not-no-chilled winter season is likely to be 1100 to 1150 kilograms per hectare this year, he added.

According to Dr Thakur, the climatic condition in Chhattisgarh does not support wheat cultivation that requires low temperature. But the temperature was relatively hot in the state in this winter that had further damaged the production of wheat, he added.

The agriculture department officials also admit that the wheat production is likely to affect this year. “We expect that the yield is not going to be the same as estimated this year,” Deputy Director in the Directorate of Agriculture R K Chandravanshi said. The productivity is likely to be around 1200 kilograms per hectare, he added.

The production of gram is however not going to affect due to variation in the winter temperature, Chandravanshi said. For the Rabi season 2012-13, the state government has estimated to produce 410400 Tonnes of gram with a productivity of 1080 kilograms per hectare. The gram crop had been sowed in 380000 hectare of area.