Featured image: Usman Ali, a farmer, holds hailstones in his hand as he sits amid his damaged crops following heavy rainfall and hailstorm in Bathinda, Saturday, March 14, 2020. Photo: PTI.
New Delhi: Farmers in several parts of north India have seen their crops severely damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms over the last week. According to the Times of India, over four lakh hectares of agricultural land has been affected and rabi season crops damaged.
While Uttar Pradesh has been the worst hit, crops have also been hit in parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar. According to SkyMet Weather, the loss is likely to be valued at Rs 255 crore in Uttar Pradesh alone, affecting 6.5 lakh farmers.
“State government will provide compensation only after crop loss estimation. Unfortunately, such an exercise takes a lot of time. Many farmers will have nothing to survive on till then,” Subhash Chaudhury, a UP farmer, told the Times of India.
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The extent of the damage is not yet officially known, since governments are yet to collect data. Preliminary reports, however, officials in the state agriculture ministry said, that 90% vegetable crops, 70% mustard and 60% wheat and potato crops have been damaged in north-west India.
“State governments have been asked to send estimates of crop losses. A central team will visit these areas to cross check the extent of damage before initiating the compensation process to provide relief to farmers,” a ministry official told the Times of India.
In Bihar too, crops including pulses, mustard, masur (lentil) and wheat have been damaged due to the rains, Down to Earth reported. J.S. Mishra, head of crop research at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Patna, told the magazine that masur production will likely fall by 30%-50% because of the rains.
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Arti Gupta, a scientist at the Bihar meteorological department, added that the state had received 31.6 mm of rain from March 1 to March 14, much higher than regular rain of 3.2 mm for the same period.
The Indian Meteorological Department, meanwhile, has predicted “scattered to widely spread” rainfall in parts of Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim and Jharkhand till March 20. These unseasonal rains may affect crops in these states as well.
Skymet Weather predicted that another strong western disturbance is predicted around March 24, which could lead to further rain and thundershowers.