Heavy rainfall may not impact Indian paddy, but other crops’ sowing may be delayed

The recent spell of rain in several parts of the country will benefit the paddy crop, while sowing of other crops such as oilseeds and pulses may be slightly delayed, the government has said. So far, there have been no reports of loss from any State, except catchment areas near some rivers, where predominantly vegetables are grown, officials said.

“Those who could not sow or transplant paddy, are doing so now after the rain. Transplantation has been progressing rapidly and a little surplus or deficit of water does not matter,” said the Agriculture Commissioner, P K Singh. Those farm lands on the bank of rivers have been affected where there is flood, Singh told businessline.

Sanjay Gupta, MD and CEO, NCML, said the monsoon is deficient in east Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Odisha, which could affect transplantation of rice “These regions must get rains by the first week of August or else area under paddy may drop,” he said.

Also read: India’s kharif area trails for almost all crops, except cane and coarse cereals

Pulses, oilseeds

Regarding pulses, Singh said the southern region had deficit rainfall so planting was tepid and as rains have started, the sowing will also gain momentum there, though a bit delayed.

The area under soyabean was over 50 per cent of the normal area until last week, and there was no excess rains in areas where planting was over, he said adding, there is no report from any State on the crop damage, so far. Normally, states inform the Centre about crop loss as relief to the farmers can be disbursed from the calamity relief fund.

Highlighting that unprecedented rainfall is being witnessed in the northern parts of the country, specifically in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director of agri-tech firm Leads Connect Services, said the downpour in hilly states is causing the reservoirs to overflow, creating flood like situation in the plains.

“Crops will not be much affected in the current kharif season, except some parts of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh which are nearer to the river flood zones. There is a possibility of re-sowing and late sowing for crops such as maize, bajra, fodder crops and pulses, primarily urad (black gram),” Ravikar said. The overall affected area may be 2-6 per cent in these states, where additional seeds and fertilizer could be required, he said.

NCML’s Gupta said the problem with paddy this time is that while areas under Basmati rice are experiencing excess rainfall and floods, the non-basmati areas are rain deficient. “Farmers can wait for 45 days to transplant. If rains come, they will go ahead and transplant, though the yield might be lower,” he said.

Gupta said besides paddy, the other crops that might be affected due to the vagaries of the monsoon are cotton and soyabean. “Rains can revive cotton, maybe, with a lower yield that could be made up through higher acreage,” he said.

Also read: ‘Mixed bag’. India’s kharif sowing gains as monsoon deficit narrows

Kharif sowing down

The kharif sowing of all crops was down 5 per cent at 421.64 lakh hectares as of July 9, from 445.94 lh in the year-ago period. Paddy sowing, however, was 16 per cent lower at 70.59 lh. The sowing window is long in case of paddy as transplanting in some States is done in September. The normal area under paddy is 399.45 lh.

The soyabean area until last week covered 54 per cent of the normal area of 117.44 lh, though 18 per cent lower from a year-ago. Pulses acreage was down 18 per cent at 45.32 lh. The government will issue the next update on Friday.

The all-India monsoon rainfall was 1 per cent above normal as of July 13 since the season started from June 1. While the deficit was 10 per cent in June, there was 18 per cent surplus rainfall at 130.8 mm during the first 13 days of this month. The weather bureau has predicted monsoon rainfall to be more than 280.4 mm this month, which is the long period average (LPA) for July. Even if the rainfall was 88 per cent of normal in the remaining 16 days, July will still see 100 per cent precipitation.

“This year the rains have taken all of us by surprise. Initially, there were talks of deficit due to a possible El Nino. Rains were supposed to be delayed but arrived almost on time in north India. And now it has been raining non-stop in large parts of the country. In some pockets, farmers haven’t even got a window of opportunity to sow or transplant their crops,” said Aneesh Jain, founder of another agritech firm Gram Unnati.

Though there are reports of farmers complaining about their fields being flooded, the actual impact will only be known once the water recedes, Jain said. “Whether the crop has been able to withstand this long spell of stagnant water or if it will require re-sowing, we have to wait and see. Farmers have also not been able to get into their fields to perform any inter-cultural operations or tackle potential pest or disease instances. If this situation continues for much longer, it is bound to have an impact on both the productivity and quality of the produce,” he said.

Vegetable crops hit

In some districts of Uttar Pradesh, the recent rainfall in the past few days has caused damage to vegetable crops, said Raj Yadav of Gramik. Also, in some districts there are large-scale cultivation of chilli where farmers have suffered losses due to rains. The excessive water from the rain has spoiled spinach crop at many places, as also coriander, Yadav said. The production of eggplant and okra has stopped due to the falling of flowers, he said adding hope of new flowers in cucumbers has also diminished.

Sanjiv Kanwar, Managing Director of Yara South Asia, said crops requiring multiple picking such as brinjal and okra have been affected largely leading to potential market price surges. However, there is an opportunity for farmers to mitigate further losses through proper crop management and field drainage, he said.

NCML’s Gupta said if rains are delayed and lash the country in September, farmers might go in for short-duration crops. They might opt for maize in the rabi season. “But if El Nino impact is felt and there are no rains in September, the soil moisture for the rabi crops will be lower and in turn, wheat production could be affected,” he said.

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