Farmers can delay wheat harvesting till Apr 20 as temp is below long-term average: ICAR

Farmers can delay wheat harvesting till April 20 without incurring any major losses as temperature in the growing states is still below the long-term average, government research body ICAR said on Tuesday, while advising farmers to take precautions amid the rapid spread of coronavirus in India.

Normally, wheat harvesting begins from March-end. The government has pegged a record wheat output of 106.21 million tonnes in 2019-20 crop year (July-June) on the back of good rains as against 103.60 million tonnes in the previous year.

In its latest advisory to farmers, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) sad, "The temperature in most wheat growing areas is still below long-term average and therefore likely to delay wheat harvesting by at least 10-15 days beyond April 10, therefore, farmers can delay wheat harvesting till April 20 without incurring any significant loss."
In its advisory, the agri-research body asked farmers to engage only "familiar persons to the extent possible and after reasonable enquiry as to avoid the entry of any suspect or likely carrier (of the coronavirus) during field activity."
ICAR said farm machines and implements should be sanitized at entry point and at regular intervals. All transport vehicles, gunny bags or other packaging material should also be sanitized