MP farmers hit by soy crop damage

For Santosh Verma from Nemawar (Harda district) and Mukund Parashar from Bari (Raisen), this kharif season was the worst. Both have lost their soy crops to the monsoon rains.

Many farmers from the villages in Harda, Hoshangabad, Sehore, Vidisha and Raisen districts in Madhya Pradesh have suffered. Mukund said he has even lost his input cost on his 10-acre farm. Interestingly, Indore-based Soyabean Processors Association of India (Sopa), the only agency that estimates crop, had expected a bumper crop this season.

While harvesting of the early varieties of soy has started in some parts, high-yield varieties like JS 335, which covers a larger area, will be harvested next week.

The crop was severely damaged by fungal infections, including the Rhizoctonia Solani and soybean mosaic virus, due to stress conditions and soil compaction. “Hoshangabad has been the worst affected. A survey is being conducted in various blocks of the district. A rough estimate suggests 10-40 per cent damage in various pockets. We are awaiting the survey results,” said a senior agriculture department official.

Soy acreage in Hoshanga bad was recorded at 205,750 hectares this year, but frequent change in weather, did the damage. Sopa had estimated that the state would producea record 6.16 million tonnes this year.

“Despite crop damage due to continuous rainfall in some district till September this year, we are expecting soya crop to touch 62 lakh hectare this year,” Rajesh Agrawal, spokesperson Sopa told Business Standard.