Heavy rains, hailstorms damage crops in Himachal Pradesh

Heavy rains and hailstorm in the past few days have badly damaged fruit crop in Himachal Pradesh, landing farmers in heavy losses.

Farmers believe that heavy rains not only impact the harvest but also affect the pollination process.

"There has been a huge loss because as soon as the flower blooms, it remains fine for one or two days in case the weather is clear, but if it gets cold, the flowers get damaged. This way almond flowers that blossomed last month got damaged too. Similarly, plum also got flowers and it got damaged because of cold. People who had sown vegetables especially peas, which is grown in large quantities faced adverse effects. In fact, peas fields have started rotting," said a Nandlal, fruit farmer.

The horticulture department is yet to assess the loss occurred to stone fruit crop that cover about 28 thousand hectare area of the state.

"There has been a huge loss. We are yet to assess the damage. We tried preventing it from hailstorm by providing netting, funding. Everything was available, all of it was ready to be given, and we also said that we shall spray on the flowers. In spite of doing all this, people remain worried and stressed," said Vidya Stokes, Horticulture Minister.

Recently, temperature in Himachal Pradesh dipped by seven to eight degree Celsius impacting the blooming season of crops including peach, plum, apricot, almond, cherry and walnut.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that his government will increase the compensation provided to affected farmers by 50 percent, as well as bring down the threshold of crop damage that allows farmers to seek government assistance. ndia is experiencing more extreme rainfall events as the global climate warms, revealed a study of 50 years of data by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.