Vegetable prices steady in Delhi despite heavy rain in North India

IMD said today current spell of heavy rains over North to continue for 2 more days

The prices of vegetables held steady in Delhi during August despite relentless rain lashing most of North India from where the national capital gets its daily supplies. This should help in keeping households’ budgets somewhat under control.

 

But there may be challenges ahead. Monsoon is expected to remain strong all through September even in northern parts of the country, which may lead to supply disruption and damage to standing crops.

 

A recent analysis by Climate Trends shows that in the past five years, extreme heatwaves and erratic rainfall have severely impacted tomato, onion, and potato (TOP) production, pushing up prices of these kitchen staples and driving food inflation to alarming levels.

 

It quotes a Reserve Bank of India data that showed that rainfall changes raise vegetable inflation by 1.24 percentage points, while temperature changes increase it by 1.30 points.

 

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its latest forecast on Tuesday said that the current spell of heavy rains over North-West India is expected to continue for the next two days with isolated extremely heavy rainfall -- which is more than 21 centimetres -- expected over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

 

It also said that fresh Low Pressure Area (LPS) has been formed over North-West Bay of Bengal which will cause heavy rains over East India over the next two days and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Konkan and Goa, Madhya Maharashtra from September 2-5 with the possibility of extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places over Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch from September 4 onwards.