Farm Uneasy | Battered by freak weather, Punjab and Haryana farmers losing hope

A wheat field in Jind district of Haryana flattened following unseasonal rains and hailstorm. (Photo: Shekhar Ghosh)

Just 175 kilometres from the national capital, 60-year-old Bira Singh, a small farmer in Dumarkha Khurd village in Haryana’s Jind district, sits with his face in his cracked hands, hardened by more than 45 years of farm labour.

It is not the rising temperature that bothers him but the realization that he has lost almost all his wheat produce due to unseasonal rain and hail that lashed the state two weeks back.

Per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), 2022 was the fifth-warmest year since 1901. Temperatures were 3-8 degree Celsius above normal for more than six days during March and April, breaking records in several parts of the country, including Punjab and Haryana.

Unusually high temperatures during these months adversely affected grain-filling and caused early senescence, thus reducing crop yields, especially that of wheat, says the IMD in its annual report for 2022.

Moneycontrol went to several villages in districts like Jind, Fatehabad, Bhatinda, and Patiala in Punjab and Haryana, and spoke to farmers to get a sense of the on-ground situation. It found that climate change has been especially hard for small farmers. Per the 2015-16 agriculture census, marginal and small farmers account for 86 percent of total farmers in India.

Bira Singh owns an acre of land, and rents three acres. This is the second year in a row that his crops have failed.

“My wheat production dipped due to a sudden rise in temperature last season. I could harvest only about 50 mann (1 mann = 40 kgs) of wheat per acre last year as against 70 mann that I generally grow. The growth of the paddy that I had sown was stunted, and I did not make any profit.  The cotton I planted was infested with pests. I could not even recover my costs and suffered severe losses. My mustard was hit due to an extremely cold winter. I had hopes from wheat this season as we’d had a good winter, but the rains have spoiled it all for us,” Bira Singh says.

Blackened wheat crop in Dumarkha Khurd village of Haryana. (Images: Shekhar Ghose)

Naturally, he is distraught. “I have lost everything. Khaane ko bas roti aur mirch milegi iss saal (we will have to sustain ourselves on bread and chillies this year),” he adds.

The production of other crops such as cotton and paddy have also been hit by extreme weather. India’s cotton production fell over 28.9 percent this season (till January 31) compared to last year. Poor rains along with a ‘dwarfing disease,’ which causes stunting of the plant, had affected the growth of paddy in Punjab and Haryana last year.

India had a record wheat output of 109.59 million tonnes in FY2020-21, which declined to 106.84 million tonnes in FY21-22 as heat waves hit the country as early as March last year. This forced the government to ban wheat exports, which still continues.

Farmers are clueless on how to tackle such climate change issues and look towards the government for help in this regard.

“This is the doing of God. We cannot do much about it. We have grown crops all our life but we do not know what we should do to mitigate the effect of this unpredictable weather. The government has not told us anything in this regard,” Bira Singh said.

The announcements made by the government, its research organisations, as well as the IMD do not percolate down to small farmers. While several continue to use simple mobile phones without internet access, those who do have digital phones are unaware of applications that have been developed to keep them updated on weather events.

An evening IMD update asking farmers not to irrigate their lands as rainfall is predicted that night or the following day does not reach the farmers and they continue to irrigate their fields as usual.

Widespread awareness campaigns are needed to ensure that such information quickly reaches the target audience.

Most instances of 45 + degree Celsius temperatures in India in 2022

Impact on wheat and rice production

The government of India has recognised the increasing impact of climate change on agriculture. The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Narendra Tomar, told parliament on March 21 that climate change is expected to impact wheat and rice production.

“In the absence of adoption of adaptation measures, rainfed rice yields in India are projected to reduce by 20 percent in 2050, and 47 percent in 2080, while irrigated rice yields are projected to reduce by 3.5 percent in 2050 and 5 percent in 2080. Climate change is projected to reduce wheat yield by 19.3 percent in 2050 and 40 percent in 2080, with significant spatial and temporal variations,” he said in answer to a Lok Sabha question. He added that climate change may reduce kharif maize yields by 18 and 23 percent in 2050 and 2080, respectively.

Moneycontrol logo for series Farm Uneasy

Repeated losses 

Government officials have said that despite unseasonal rains, the production of wheat compared to last year has seen a rise, with India estimated to harvest a record 112.8 million tonnes this season.

However, the rains have been the reason for the production falling short of its full potential.

Rajbir Yadav, Principal Scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, has worked on the development of different varieties of wheat. He explained how the temperature variation affected farmers.

“Temperature rise happens every few years in different months. In the rabi crop season (November-April, roughly) of 2021-22, a rise in rain events caused waterlogging, because of which growth of the crop was compromised. This was coupled with a sudden rise in temperature later, in early March. The crop, which was already poor, suffered even more due to this. Most farmers harvested less than 18 quintals (1 quintal = 100 kgs) per acre,” said Yadav.

Speaking about this year’s losses, he added, “While the harvest this year has improved with most farmers harvesting above 20 quintals per acre in Punjab and  Haryana, there have been losses in the sense that the full crop capacity could not be realised due to untimely rains. The projections for wheat had been higher.”

These repeated losses over two years have caused much distress among farmers, he said.

The advisory was issued following a sudden spike rise in a temperature.

Governments measures

The Punjab government has announced an enhanced compensation for damaged crops. For 76-100 percent crop damage, farmers will get a compensation of Rs. 15,000 per acre. For crop damage between 33-75 percent, the farmers will get Rs 6,750 per acre. The state exchequer will also pay Rs 2,000 per acre for up to 32 percent crop damage.

Even though the government had promised that the money would reach the affected farmers by Baisakhi (the Punjabi new year) on 14th April, farmers say the compensation is yet to come.

“Some villages that the CM visited have received their compensation. But we are not very hopeful,” said Paramjit Singh, a farmer from Harangpura village in Punjab’s Bhatinda district. About 30 percent of his crops had been destroyed, he said, and lamented that the compensation would not even cover his costs.

“Our costs are about Rs 15,000-18,000 per acre. The compensation would not even cover that, let alone our time, and money to grow the next cycle of crops,” said Harpreet Singh of Bhatinda’s Govindpura village.

On April 9, the Haryana government asked its farmers who suffered losses owing to the recent unseasonal rain and hail to upload their crop damage reports on the e-Kshatipurti (compensation) portal. It said that district magistrates would direct the assessment of losses.

The state promised a compensation up to Rs 9,000 per acre for 25-50 per cent damage, Rs 12,000 for 50-75 per cent damage, and Rs 15,000 per acre for 75-100 per cent damage.

However, reality shows otherwise.

“No one has come yet. There has been no assessment. The local administrators always work in cahoots with local leaders and issue compensations selectively,” Ramir Kumar (40), who owns two acres of land in Jind district’s Sudkainkalan village, said.

Following appeals by state governments who had despatched teams to assess the damage, on April 11 the union government relaxed quality norms for wheat procurement in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan during the current rabi season.

To prevent distress sales, the limit for shrivelled and broken grains was increased up to 18 per cent from the existing 6 per cent. However, the union government slashed the minimum support price of wheat — Rs 2,125 — by up to Rs 31.87 (in various slabs).

Next crop cycle

For those who have sustained successive body blows, sowing the next cycle of crops seems an uphill task.

“I will barely get a return of a few thousand rupees from these crops. I will have to take out a loan to sow the next crop. I only hope I am able to make some profit out of it. I will quit farming otherwise,” said Bira Singh.

Crop production in India

(Up next: Part Two of the series on farmer's debt in Punjab and Haryana, which rises many folds from one generation to the next)