Rural distress: Untimely rains hit summer crops, delay winter sowing

The recent wet spell is also forcing farmers to delay sowing winter crops, placing a further drag on the rural economy at a time when India's economic growth has slumped to a six-year low

Heavy rains in October and November have brought more misery to India’s farmers, after summer-sown crops such as soybean, cotton, rice and vegetables suffered rain and flood damage during the wettest June-September monsoon season in 25 years.

“We couldn’t harvest soybeans last month due to continuous rainfall,” said Shantabai Chikhale, 65, while harvesting with her son on a one acre plot in Maharashtra, India’s second largest soybean production state.

Chikhale had been expecting a bumper crop, but now estimates that two-thirds of the soybean pods on her farm in Kalamb village were knocked off by the rains, while much of the remaining