Acres of standing crop have been destroyed by the rain and hailstorms that have swept parts of north and western India. Western Maharashtra saw the worst damage as more than 50,000 hectares of rabi crop, mangoes and other agri-products have been destroyed. With the MET department warning of more rainfall in the coming days, what impact will this have on crops and what are the expectations from the monsoon?
GP Sharma of Skymet Weather Services does not see adverse weather conditions next week. He, however, expects rainfall around March-end.
According to GS Kaushal, former Directorate of Agriculture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, hailstorm in nearly 2,000 MP villages have destroyed crops, including mustard, gram and all rabi crops.
Below is the transcript of GP Sharma & G S Kaushal’s interview with Senthil Chengalvarayan & Menaka Doshi on CNBC-TV18Menaka: Give us a sense on the extent of damage that has already taken place with regards to some of the unseasonal rain that we already see occur in north and western India?Kaushal: You see hailstorm in nearly 2,000 villages of Madhya Pradesh have taken place which have destroyed the total crop completely. Now nearly 15-20 percent crops suffer from 3-4 heavy spells of rain which have taken place during the last two months. Now crops like lentils and pea suffer losses to a great extent. Similarly mustard and gram has also affected and because these are the pulses crop they do not require much of the water so they are greatly affected. The of quality of wheat gram because the Sharbati wheat of Madhya Pradesh is very famous but if the rain drops come at the mature grains then it decolourise and loses the market value.
Menaka: But this is mostly the impact on Madhya Pradesh, could you also, if you have data with us on the impact on other states, for instance Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan? Kaushal: I had been to Punjab, now visited Uttar Pradesh also, everywhere the rains are there. Now we suppose that wheat crop suffered least, but in Punjab.
Senthil: What is the extent of damage, can these crops be replanted or is the rabi season now wash out? Kaushal: You can say 10-15 percent crops have been badly affected. Senthil: So wash out, they cannot be replanted? Kaushal: There is no question of replanting. They can't come up. Once they have lied down we call it logging, logging takes place we cannot recover. The grain size also gets reduced.
Menaka: Okay, let us get a weather perspective as well. Is this bout of unseasonal rain, why, even hailstorms likely to continue?Sharma: The events as we know, as the agriculture expert has also brought out, there have been three successive events of adverse weather over north and central parts of the country one after the other. The last one just ended yesterday. But, as I see, I can share with you probably, the good news is I do not foresee any such thing in the next at least about a week or 10 days for north and central parts of the country including Maharashtra. And, the weather is going to be on the softer side for most of these regions. But end of this month, once again I see some weather occurring over northern parts of the country but not extending to parts of Maharashtra or Madhya Pradesh even on those episodes.
Menaka: Would you say that the north has been worst affected by this unseasonal rain? Sharma: No, unseasonal rains have affected right from Maharashtra particularly the western parts of Maharashtra in terms of heavy hailstorm activity on few occasions and also parts of Rajasthan. In the last episode the hailstorm activity has been quite intense and special coverage has been very large. Parts of Punjab and Haryana extending to parts of Uttar Pradesh (UP) also has been lashed with the very heavy extremely heavy rains in the last two episodes and also the strong winds along with the rains and the hailstorm has made the conditions worst for all these parts.
Senthil: So, how rare is this and when did this happen last and what is the impact on agriculture, do you expect?Sharma: Normally, the month of March, you expect the rains to recede from northern parts also, including Punjab and Haryana. And in any case, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, they do not see much of rains. This month of March, all these places, they are expected to just about have 1 centimetres of rainfall in the month of March, and that is the average. But whereas, many places in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh including Punjab and Haryana, they have received 10 times of rainfall. Some of the places, they have received 10 centimetres of rainfall in the first half of the month itself and as we say, some more rain is expected in the coming week. Not in the coming week, in the last few days of this month and therefore, they are well above normal and these types of episodes we are seeing after many years. In case of certain parts, it is almost about 100 years or so that this much of rainfall has been experienced as this location.
Menaka: What is that the new expect will be, the full extent of damage to the crop given that just the unseasonal rains so far has hurt 10-15 percent of several crops that you have already outlined? GP Sharma is saying that we are going to see more rain at the end of this month: Kaushal: If there are more rains then the harvested crop will also be affected. As I told you the quality of grain and wheat is badly affected. Even gram the colour is changing to black and these further rains will create lot of problem in the state because the crops are matured they are standing in the filed and cultivators are waiting for the harvest. Menaka: Can you talk to us about whether these short falls because of the impact on some crops has you have already laid out for instance that lentils, peas, wheat grain even horticultural crops such as vegetables, coriander because of the impact of this are we going to see a considerable short fall in food in the months to come or do you expect that other states will be able to make up for the short fall from the impacted states? Kaushal: There will not be short fall of the food because you are having sufficient reserved stocks of wheat. Menaka: But not in horticultural crops like vegetables or coriander? What about lentils and peas?Kaushal: They cannot be recovered, you see in other states, because Madhya Pradesh is the first in the country for producing oilseed and pulses. If they are affected in the Madhya Pradesh then it will affect the whole other country because we import lot of oilseeds for our consumption, even we import the pulses. If there are short fall in the country then definitely it will extend the problem.
Menaka: My final question to Mr. Sharma of Skymet. Your expectations from the monsoon?Sharma: The monsoon so far by Skymet is going to be normal, you can take it. However, the observations which we have, the credibility increases once we have the data for the month of March also and the forecast which we make in the month of April, that becomes a little more accurate. But, as of now, the data which is available after the month of February, we predict a normal monsoon this year.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
