The Hindu Business Line : Winter prompts first frost alert in north

Ludhiana touched 3.1 deg C on Monday night, an India Meteorological Department update said. Frost and cold wave conditions have been forecast for isolated pockets of Punjab and Haryana.

Northwest India is likely to experience a wet spell for three days from Sunday. Fairly widespread precipitation is likely over the region during this period.

Mercury hovering around or below 4 deg C brings with it the risk of frost, said Dr Akhilesh Gupta of the Department of Science and Technology. But frost at this point of time may not prove as harmful to the crop as it would during the latter stages of its growth.

This becomes especially true after mid-December when the wheat plant develops stem. This is the time when the plant would need optimum weather conditions, with ideally low temperatures.

Water needs

The low temperatures also help limit the irrigation requirement to the minimum. Above normal temperatures would mean higher levels of evaporation, as was the case during the corresponding period last year.

These conditions were exactly reversed during the first and second weeks of January, when a severe cold wave gripped the plains of the north bringing mercury levels repeatedly to new lows. This had promptly raised a frost alert to the detriment of the standing crops.

Normally, the frost threat is live for cropped lands in the plains of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

According to Dr Gupta, a well-coordinated campaign by weather forecasters and agro-meteorologists is imperative to generate advance information on likely swings in mercury level.

For instance, farmers can resort to light irrigation if ruling temperatures are high enough to trigger evaporation and leads to loss of available moisture. The crucial issue is whether forecasts on variations in temperature could be made with respect to a particular location or crop.

Rabi sowing

According to latest reports, sowing in more than 50 per cent of the normal area for the rabi wheat was covered before the third week of November. The rabi season is crucial because wheat is critical for the country's food security, while chana and mustard seed ensure availability of protein and fat.

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