Heavy rainfall may not impact Indian paddy, but other crops’ sowing may be delayed

The government said the recent wave of rains in several parts of the country will benefit the rice crop, while sowing of other crops such as oilseeds and pulses may be slightly delayed. So far, officials said, there have been no reports of casualties from any state, except for catchment areas near some rivers, where vegetables are mostly grown.

“Those who could not sow or sow rice, now do so after the rain. Sowing operations are progressing rapidly and it does not matter how little water is surplus or lack,” said Commissioner for Agriculture PK Singh. Those farms on the riverbanks have been affected, Singh said. Where there was a flood Business line.

Sanjay Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of NCML, said monsoons are minor in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Odisha, which may affect rice cultivation. The area under rice may decrease.

Also read: The Khareef region of India follows almost all crops, except for sugarcane and coarse grains

Legumes and oilseeds

In terms of pulses, Singh said the southern region suffers from a lack of rainfall, so cultivation has been lukewarm, and as the rains begin, sowing will also gain momentum there, although with a little delay.

He said that the area of ​​soybeans was more than 50 percent of the normal area until last week, and there was no excessive rain in the areas where cultivation ended, adding that there has been no report from any country of crop damage, so far. Usually, countries report crop losses to the center so that relief can be disbursed to farmers from the Disaster Relief Fund.

The nationwide rainfall highlights the unprecedented rainfall in the northern parts of the country, namely in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and some parts of Uttar Pradesh, said Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director of agro-technology firm Leeds Connect Services. Hill conditions cause overflow of reservoirs, which leads to flood conditions in plains.

Crops will not be affected much in the current Khareef season, except for some parts of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh which are close to the river flood areas. “There is potential for re-seeding and late sowing of crops like maize, bajra, fodder crops and pulses, especially urad (black gram),” Ravikar said. The total infected area may be 2-6 percent in these states, he said, where additional seeds and fertilizers may be needed.

The problem with rice this time, said Gupta of the center, is that while the areas under the basmati rice suffer from heavy rains and floods, the non-basmati areas suffer from a lack of rain. “Farmers can wait up to 45 days for the transplant to take place. If it rains, the sowing will take place, although the yield may be lower.

Besides rice, other crops that may be affected due to monsoon fluctuations are cotton and soybeans, Gupta said. “The rains could revive the cotton, perhaps, with a lower yield that could be compensated for by larger acreage,” he said.

Also read: ‘variety bag’. Autumn sowing gains in India as seasonal deficit wanes

Autumn sows

Khareef sowing of all crops decreased by 5 per cent at 421.64 lakh hectares as of July 9, from 445.94 lakh hectares in the same period last year. However, rice sowing decreased by 16 percent at 70.59 liters. The sowing period is long in the case of rice as the transplant takes place in some states in September. The normal area under the cedar is 399.45 liters.

Soybean area as of last week covered 54 percent of the normal area of ​​117.44 liters, although it was down 18 percent from last year. The area of ​​pulses decreased by 18 percent at 45.32 litres. The government will release the next update on Friday.

Monsoon rainfall across India was 1 percent higher than normal as of July 13 since the season started from June 1. While the deficit was 10 percent in June, there was an excess of 18 percent precipitation at 130.8 mm during the first 13 days of this month. The Met Office predicted more than 280.4mm of monsoon precipitation this month, which is the Long Period Average (LPA) for July. Even if the rainfall is 88 percent of normal in the remaining 16 days, July will still see 100 percent precipitation.

“The rains have taken us by surprise this year. Initially, there were talks of deficits due to the possibility of El Niño. The rains were supposed to be delayed but it arrived almost on time in northern India. Now it is raining non-stop in large parts of the country. Said Anish Jain, Founder Another agro-technology company, Gram Onate, says, “In some pockets, farmers didn’t even have a chance to plant or grow their crops.”

Jin said that although there have been reports of farmers complaining about their fields being flooded, the actual impact will only be known once the water recedes. “Whether the crop can withstand such a long period of standing water or if it will require re-seeding, we will have to wait and see. Farmers have also not been able to enter their fields to perform any intercropping operations or treat potential pest or disease cases. If this situation continues For a longer period, it is bound to have an impact on both productivity and product quality.

hit vegetable crops

Raj Yadav of Gramik said that in some areas of Uttar Pradesh, recent rains in the past few days have caused damage to vegetable crops. Also, in some areas there is extensive cultivation of chilies as farmers have suffered losses due to rains. Yadav said that excess water from the rains had spoiled the spinach crop in many places, as well as coriander. eggplant production and Okra It was stopped by the flowers falling off, he said, adding that hope that new blooms would appear on cucumbers had also waned.

Sanjeev Kanwar, Managing Director, Yara South Asia said that crops require multiple picking like brinjal and Okra May have been greatly affected resulting in potential market prices. However, there is an opportunity for farmers to mitigate further losses through proper crop management and field drainage, he said.

Gupta of the National Mine Action Center said that if the rains are delayed and sweep the country in September, farmers may go for short-term crops. They may pick corn in the spring season. “But if the effect of El Nino is felt and there are no rains in September, the soil moisture of the spring crops will be lower, and therefore, wheat production may be affected,” he said.