Wheat productions drop by 4-5% due to untimely rains

NEW DELHI: Wheat production in India, the world’s second-largest producer, is expected to fall 4-5% short of the earlier estimate of 95.76 million tonne in the current season because of unseasonal rains that hit ready-to-harvest crop in some parts of the country. This estimate is based on initial reports, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Tuesday while addressing a conference on kharif crops. The country produced 95.85 million tonne of wheat in 2013-14. According to the estimates, unseasonal rains and hailstorms damaged rabi crops in about 11.3 million hectares in the past few days, Singh said. The total cultivable area in rabi season is estimated at 60 million hectares.

The drop in production however is unlikely to make any impact on wheat and wheat products prices, said Tejinder Narang, a grain analyst based in New Delhi. "We have a carryover stock of 18 million tonne from the previous year With such huge stock, prices are expected to be stable." Rains in the past few days have led to white and black pest infestation, discolouration of grain and further impact yields. Narang said for the common man, it hardly matters if the wheat is lustreless (in outer appearance) or not because he is concerned only about the quality of the flour.

The agriculture minister has asked states to utilise funds under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for providing financial assistance to farmers affected by unseasonal rains. The government has also set up an informal group of ministers, headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, to look into the possibility of raising the cap on financial assistance given to farmers in such cases.

"The Centre is ready to give additional funds to states once they utilize those available with them under SDRF. A central team has already visited seven states to assess the crop loss," Singh said. According to an earlier estimate given by the government on March 26, rains between February last week and mid-March damaged crops on over 10.67 million hectare. As per that, the maximum damage was reported from Rajasthan, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.