Vegetable farmers rue decline in yield due to intense heatwave

Amritsar, June 24

The intense heatwave has not only troubled city residents, but also vegetable cultivators who have reported a decline in yield due to high temperature. The decline in production of vegetables have also led to shooting up of vegetable prices in the markets.

Sukhjit Singh, a vegetable grower, said, “The vegetable plants are struggling to survive amid heatwave conditions. We have to irrigate thrice a week, but still plants are drying.” He said flowers on plants fall off due to heat and as such the production of crops has gone down.

Take the example of cucumber for which farmers had suffered huge losses around a month and a half ago when it was being purchased by traders for Rs 5 per kilo. Cucumber is now being sold at Rs 40 per kilo.

The prices of other vegetables such as ladyfinger, gourds and others have also increased. Even lemons are priced at Rs 120 per kg in retail. Most cultivators stated that the intense heat has impacted all vegetable crops and fruit trees. They hope that with change in weather conditions after the arrival of the monsoon, the production of vegetables would increase.

Harnam Singh, another vegetable grower, said, “It has been a dry summer so far. If the weather changes, vegetable crops may survive or else these would have to be uprooted.” He said the production of vegetables has come down by almost 50 per cent. Watering vegetable crops also increases growth of weeds, which again becomes a trouble for farmers.