Rain forecast leaves farmers worried

Jalandhar, January 1

The weather remained pleasant throughout the day as the sun shone on Wednesday, bringing a little relief for city residents and farmers. But, the prediction of rain by the weatherman has left farmers worried.

Besides, the temperature has dipped in the past few days, adding to the woes of residents. Bone-chilling cold threw life out of gear in the past couple of days.

The farmers, who have sown wheat, are of the view that if it rains in the coming days, their crops will suffer damage.

Potato farmers fear that their crop may suffer from blight due to cold waves and extremely low temperature.

Ashok Kumar, patron of the Natural Farmers’ Association, said although the low temperature was good for the wheat crop, rain could affect its growth.

He added that the farmers were facing problems of blight in their potatoes because of the present weather conditions.

“Every crop needs sunlight to grow, but frost leads to stunted growth of the crops. Thereafter, the moisture leads to various diseases,” he said, adding that the condition will be worsened if rain leads to a dip the mercury.

Farmers, who have grown potato on several acres, say they have seen blight attacking their crop in Kartarpur.

Kirpal Singh from Musapur village in Jalandhar said his 10 acres had already got affected by blight.

“I had gone to Kartarpur and saw several complaining of blight, which has attacked their crop,” he added.

Satnam Sahni, spokesperson for the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee, said the effect of extreme low temperature was already visible on the wheat crop as it was not witnessing growth for the past few days. — TNS