India’s Tur crop for 2021-22 season is set to shrink as excess monsoon and post-monsoon rains in the key growing regions of Karnataka, a major producer, have damaged the crop by over a fifth. Also, the excess rains in other States such as Andhra, Maharashtra and Gujarat have impacted the crop, trade sources said.

In Karnataka, Tur has been completely impacted in about 2.91 lakh hectares (lh) of the planted area of 14.55 lh, due to the excess rains throughout the crop cycle season from July this year in major growing districts of Kalaburgi and Bidar, official sources said.

The crop has been damaged due to water logging in the initial stages in some areas, while the recent rains damaged the late sown crop in the flowering stage and the pod-filling stages.

‘Very bad situation’

“It is a washout for Tur growers this year,” said Basavaraj Ingin, President of Karnataka Pradesh RedGram Growers Association in Kalaburgi. “It is a very bad situation. We may not be in a position to harvest anything and it is an unbearable loss to the farmers,” he added

Official sources said Karnataka farmers had planted more area under Tur than the targeted area of 14.3 lh and the crop has also been impacted by 33 per cent to 55 per cent in districts such as Bagalkot, Koppal and Chikkaballapur, among others.

Overall yields are seen shrinking and the lower anticipated output in Karnataka could pull down the country’s overall production. Overall Tur acreage in the country was up at 49.83 lh, higher than 47.98 lh in the previous year. Maharasthra with 13.23 lh and Madhya Pradesh with 4.25 lh were among the top three states in acreage.

As per the First Advance estimates for the 2021-22 season, the government had pegged the crop at 4.43 million tonnes (mt) on higher acreage. During 2020-21, the output of Tur was 4.28 mt.

Climate change impact

Santosh Langar, a pulses miller and trader in Kalaburgi said the crop loss could be as high as 40 per cent in Karnataka this year. Harvest is likely to begin in some areas from mid-December. The prices have not reacted, so far, as the imports are open and the demand was muted during the festive season.

Punit Bachawat, Managing Director, Prakash Agro Mills in Ahmedabad said climate change has been a big worry for the pulses crop this year. Tur crop has been damaged by 10-15 per cent in Maharashtra and Gujarat, which may impact the overall output.

Including the losses in Karnataka and Andhra, the overall crop could be down by over 20 per cent, Bachawat said. Based on the trade feedback, the Tur crop could be around 2.9 mt. The rains are still continuing in parts of Andhra and Karnataka, he added.

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