Rain, hailstorm damage mustard, vegetable crops; wheat largely unaffected

CHANDIGARH: Heavy rains and hailstorms that lashed north-western India on Thursday have caused damage to oilseeds and other easily perishable crops, mainly peas, potato and cauliflower, in the region. But the main rabi crop of wheat may have scraped through the inclement weather.

While the rains will help cut the cost of irrigation for the wheat crop, these are set to affect the output of oilseeds. “Mustard is affected by heavy rains as well as strong gust in several districts,” a senior official at the Haryana agriculture department said. Growers of peas, potato and cauliflower have suffered heavy losses as their crops are affected by the hailstorm.

While mustard has taken a hit in Haryana, the weather has damaged the potato crop in Punjab. Wheat is expected to gain from the precipitation, though there could be a marginal yield loss in hailstorm-affected areas. As the wheat crop has not attained height, the wind and rain have not affected it,” an official of Punjab’s agriculture department said, adding: “But hailstorm has affected all the crops.” Officials, however, have alerted farmers about the risk of yellow rust that dwells in wet weather.


Hailstorm and strong winds have caused damage in several pockets in districts of Sirsa, Hisar, Mahendergarh, Palwal, Bhiwani Kaithal and Gurgaon in Haryana. The Haryana government has decided to conduct survey of damage to crops In Punjab, initial reports indicate crop losses in Patiala, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, Mohali and Ferozepur.

“There are preliminary reports of damage to crops, mainly perishables, but it will take a few days for the assessment of the extent of loss,” Punjab’s principal secretary of agriculture, KS Pannu, said. The Punjab government announced a survey to assess the losses, in order to initiate a process to provide compensation to the affected farmers.