Unseasonal rain, hail to damage wheat, mustard, gram

New Delhi: The unseasonal rains and hailstorms in various parts of the country, especially in north India, will cause damage to rabi crops like wheat, mustard and gram, warn agricultural scientists.

Speaking to IANS, Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Director, Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), Karnal, said unseasonal rain and strong wind will affect the crop yields as the wheat which is standing will fall.

As of now, the reports of damage to wheat has been reported from Haryana but since the crop is ready for the harvest, so wherever there will be a hailstorm, the crop will fall on the field and get damaged, said Singh.

Jagraj Dandi, Joint Director, Haryana Government, told IANS that the mustard crop is likely to be damaged more as compared to wheat. Reports of spoilage of wheat and mustard in many districts including Mahendragarh, Rewari and Rohtak is being reported.

On data of damage of crops, he said no data can be given as of now, it can only be assessed after a damage survey (girdawari) is done.

Farmers’s organisations in Haryana have demanded that the government compensate the farmers for the damage of their crops due to rain and hailstorm by getting the survey done.

According to the scientists, gram and mustard will be damaged more than wheat.

The western disturbance caused unseasonal rains and hailstorms in various parts of the country including north India. According to Skymet, heavy rains and snowfall occurred in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Ladakh while heavy rains along with hailstorms were reported in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh.

Moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms were also reported in Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal while some parts of Chhattisgarh and Bihar also received rains.

IANS