Little rain, soaring temperature concern for Jalandhar farmers

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 26

Farmers who have sown paddy are a worried lot as the temperature has remained on the higher side and there’s little rain in July so far.

Sukhwinder Singh, a farmer of Puranpur village, said top shoots of paddy had started drying as the maximum temperature was hovering around 35 degree Celsius. “The optimum temperature around this time should have been around 30 degree Celsius. It gets cloudy everyday but it hardly rains. We have to use tubewells to irrigate our fields,” he said.

The farmers are apprehensive of not getting a good produce if the dry spell gets prolonged. Kashmir Singh, a farmer from Jandiala village, said, “The tips of paddy shoots are getting wilted. There is stunted growth of paddy. We have to be very careful. Owing to higher temperature, the crop is more prone to diseases.”

“Last year, our crop got washed away in floods. Now, the weather is completely dry. We are relying on tubewells to irrigate our fields,” said Salwinder Singh of Janian village in Shahkot.

Agriculture expert Dr Naresh Gulati said, “The farmers need not worry. The dry spell will do no harm. They just have to go for intermittent drying and wetting. The ideal way is to irrigate the fields fully and let them dry before watering them again. This will give them a fuller harvest.”