Rain: Agri Min, MoS to visit Maha, UP, Guj to assess crop loss

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will visit Maharashtra tomorrow to assess the damage of rabi crops caused by recent heavy rains and hailstorms in various areas.
Besides Singh, the two Ministers of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria and Sanjeev Kumar Balyan would visit Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
"Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will visit Maharashtra tomorrow and will take extensive tour of areas affected by recent heavy rain and hailstorm," an official statement said.
A team of senior officials and state government officials will accompany Singh.
Kundaria has already reached Gujarat along with team of officials to assess the loss of crops caused due to heavy rains and hailstorm.

That apart, Balyan will visit tomorrow affected areas of Utter Pradesh to assess the loss of crops, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the government today informed Parliament that unseasonal rains and hailstorms in various parts of the country during this month have "adversely affected" production of rabi crops.
"The recent unseasonal rains and hailstorms in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have adversely affected production of rabi crops...
"... Further aggravating the overall production of agricultural crops during 2014-15," Minister of State for Agriculture Mohanbhai Kundaria said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Wheat, mustard and grams are major rabi (winter-sown) crops.
India's foodgrains production is estimated to decline by 3.2 per cent at 257.07 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) as against 265.57 million tonnes in the previous year, he said.