Comments
The Indian government is confident that there will be no repeat of last year’s heatwave in March that shrivelled wheat crop, lowering its yield. The confidence stems from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) releasing its monthly forecast that predicted above-normal temperatures to be confined to a few districts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.
“We will have a bumper crop this year and last year’s situation is unlikely to be repeated,” said PK Singh, Agriculture Commissioner, who is heading a high-level committee on the management of heat stress on wheat crop. As per field reports from all major States including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the crop is in good condition, Singh told businessline.
Climate-resilient varieties
The committee, which held its first meeting on February 26 at Karnal, Haryana, will meet every week, Singh said adding that farmers are already advised to apply light irrigation to the crop to maintain soil moisture.
“Apart from the unusual heat in March last year, there were also frost and unusual rains in January-February that affected wheat. This time, the situation is better,” he said. Due to the introduction of climate-resilient varieties released in the last few years, most of the wheat crops can sustain maximum temperatures of up to 35 degree Celsius in March, he said.
The Agriculture Ministry has estimated wheat production at a record high of 112.18 million tonnes (mt) this crop year (July-June) against 107.74 mt in 2021-22. Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal will chair a meeting of State food secretaries on Wednesday (March 1 ) where the wheat procurement target will be fixed as the official purchase will start from April 1. The Government procures the entire year’s wheat requirement in the first three months of the winter crop harvesting season.
Low probability
IMD has said the probability of the occurrence of a heatwave over India is low in March and even if it happens, it will be confined to western Maharashtra, south Gujarat and east Madhya Pradesh. If the maximum temperature in an area remains 4.5 degrees Celcius above normal for five days or more, it qualifies to be under heat wave.
Stressing that more than 75 per cent of wheat area (out of 5.9 million hectares) is under early and timely sowing conditions in Haryana and Punjab, Singh said the crop may not be affected this year in these two States, which reported a maximum yield drop last year among all growing states. In the north-western plain, over half of the wheat acreage has seen adoption of climate-resilient varieties, he said.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.