Rain flattens paddy crop, hampers harvesting in district

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Amritsar, October 15

Heavy rain on late Saturday night has added to the worries of farmers as their paddy crop is ready for harvesting. Unseasonal rain led to waterlogging in many low-lying areas, besides flattening of paddy crop in the district.

Farmers have also complained that the rain has slowed down the pace of harvesting as the fields have become wet and it would be difficult for the heavy combine harvesters to enter paddy fields. Mandeep Singh, a farmer from Jhabal, said, “I had planned to harvest the crop today, but as it rained last night, now I have to wait for the fields to dry.” Mandeep said heavy rain at this juncture would cause damage to the crop.

With the weatherman predicting more rain in the area during the next two days, the farmers are worried. Many said that it would cause further flattening of the crop resulting in loss of yield and discoloration of the grains.

“It would be difficult for the farmers to sell their crop if the grains are discoloured and they would have to sell it at a price lower than the MSP,” said Kewal Singh, another farmer. Earlier, farmers had faced losses as the crop was destroyed by rain and the floods, he added.

Rain has also spilled trouble for the vegetable cultivators as more moisture in the soil would cause damage to the newly sprouted seedlings. The Agriculture Department too has advised farmers to drain out the excess water standing in the fields. Meanwhile, the prevailing weather conditions have caused a significant drop in the temperature.

Meanwhile, heavy rain accompanied by hailstorm and strong winds last night has increased the chances of damage to paddy crop in the Tarn Taran district. Farmers had suffered a loss of crops due to the floods in the recent past. There are reports that rain accompanied by strong winds started around midnight and continued for about three hours.

The worst affected paddy (basmati) varieties are the 1509, 1121, 1692, etc, while parmal, being late variety, was less affected by rain. Prabhdial Singh, a farmer of Aladinpur village, said he had planted the 1509 in his field and the paddy crop in all his fields have been flattened. Tejinderpl Singh of Rasulpur village said the hailstorm had affected up to 10 per cent of the fully matured crop.

Officials of the Agriculture Department said there were reports that in the coming days, the sunshine would make the fields dry and there would not be any loss to the farmers as was predicted at the time last wheat crop.