Rabi crops like wheat not much impacted by untimely rains, hail: Agriculture Minister

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said there is not much impact on standing rabi crops like wheat due to the current untimely rains and hailstorm, as per preliminary report.

"There is not much impact on rabi crops as per the preliminary assessment. We are yet to receive a ground report from the state governments," Tomar told PTI on the sidelines of an event.

Wheat is the main rabi crop, harvesting of which is underway in some states. Mustard and chickpea are other major rabi crops.

For the last three days, many parts of the country received unseasonal rains, hail and gusty winds brought about by Western disturbance.

On Monday, the central government had said there is no concern about mustard and chickpea (chana) crops as most of it has been harvested. In the case of horticultural crops, localised hailstorms might have affected some crops like banana and potato.

The government has projected a record wheat output of 112.2 million tonnes for the 2022-23 crop year (July-June).

Meanwhile, weather office IMD has advised farmers of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to postpone harvesting.

Assam farmers have been asked to postpone harvesting of fruits and vegetables and move the already harvested produce to safer places immediately. Farmers have been told to postpone maize sowing in Sikkim and jute sowing in sub-Himalayan West Bengal.

Farmers should drain out excess water from crop fields, provide mechanical support to horticultural crops and staking to vegetables, use hail nets to protect apple, pear, plum and peach orchards in Himachal Pradesh and

Uttarakhand and orchards in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, East Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

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