The Hindu Business Line : 20 lh kharif crop area lost to floods, says Centre

Farm issues
How much the floods would translate into crop loss not year clear.
Food Ministry clarifies no plans now to lift ban on other varieties of non-basmati rice.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Sept. 24 The Union Agriculture Ministry has officially admitted that the country has lost about 20 lakh hectares (lh) of kharif crop area on account of recent floods in many States.

“We have lost about 20 lh in the current kharif season,” the Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Mr T. Nanda Kumar, said in his inaugural address at the two-day National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign-2008 here on Tuesday.

Optimism

He was, however, optimistic that the rains in August-September, while causing damage to the standing kharif crop, will help provide adequate soil moisture for the ensuing rabi planting season. The losses in kharif will then hopefully be made up in rabi.

According to the latest data compiled by the Home Ministry’s Disaster Management Division, over 22 lh sown under kharif crops this year have so far been affected by the floods in August-September, which followed a dry spell in many States in July.

Primary losses

The 22 lh mainly covers Orissa (5.36 lh), Andhra Pradesh (4.32 lh), Uttar Pradesh (4.22 lh) and Bihar (3.38 lh). Others to have reported crop area damage include Punjab (2,07,027 hectares), Assam (1,35,345 hectares), West Bengal (1,19,858 hectares), Haryana (21,725 hectares), Himachal Pradesh (18,390 hectares), Kerala (5,500 hectares) and Karnataka (2,241 hectares).

How much of crop-wise production losses these would translate into is not clear as of now. The Agriculture Ministry is scheduled to release its “first advance estimates” of production of kharif foodgrains, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and jute for 2008-09 at the end of the Conference on Thursday.

Non-basmati rice ban

Meanwhile, in a separate release, the Food Ministry has clarified that while the Centre has allowed export of Pusa-1121 variety of non-basmati rice from the country, “there is no proposal under consideration before this Department for lifting ban on export of any other varieties of non-basmati rice”.

The statement comes only a couple of days after the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, hinted at the Centre removing restrictions on exports “as early as possible”.

The Food Ministry, on its part, has said “in several parts of the country there is a possibility of some damage to paddy crop due to recent floods and assessment of the same is being made in consultation with the State Governments”.

It added that a decision on continuation or lifting of the ban on export of non-basmati rice (barring Pusa-1121) will be taken based on the progress of paddy/rice procurement in the new 2008-09 kharif marketing season and open market price trends in different parts of the country.

Damage to sugarcane

Although the marketing season officially starts only in October, this time it has been advanced to September 22 in Haryana and September 29 in Punjab at the request of the two State Governments.

Apart from paddy, the recent floods are also expected to have caused some damage to sugarcane. In a statement to the exchanges, the country’s No. 1 sugar maker, Bajaj Hindusthan Ltd, said that heavy rains in UP has affected maintenance work at four of its plants.

However, the company does not expect to incur any losses due to the rainfall as the plants and stocks are fully insured. At the same time, the quality and quantity of sugarcane crop in the region may be adversely impacted, it said.

More Stories on : Cultivation | Natural Calamities

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page