Domestic wheat production is likely to slide by almost 5 per cent after significant tracts across key wheat-growing States, such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana, were damaged by unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms through much of last month.
Agriculture Ministry officials estimated that 421 districts across 69 per cent of the country received excess rainfall between March 1 and April 1.
Rabi crops on nearly 113 lakh hectares (lh) of a total cultivable 600 lh have been damaged, they said.
“According to initial reports received from the States after the rains, estimates show that wheat output could be 4-5 per cent lower this year,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said during an address at a conference on Kharif crops here on Tuesday. He said the estimate was preliminary and officials would visit the affected regions to make a final assessment.
In its second advance estimates, the Ministry has pegged wheat output at 95.76 million tonnes (mt) in 2014-15 (July-June), marginally lower than the record 95.85 mt registered in 2013-14.
Australian imports
According to reports, India, the world’s second-largest wheat producer, recently bought 80,000 tonnes of the grain from Australia. Mustard and seasonal vegetables and fruits were damaged by heavy showers, the latter category more likely to fuel food inflation that has averaged 5.3 per cent this year.
Procurement norms Singh added that States have adequate funds under the State Disaster Response Fund to provide financial assistance to affected farmers.