Light to moderate rain reported in the region has affected the paddy procurement in Haryana leaving farmers high and dry. Millions of tonnes of paddy lying in the mandis got soaked due to early morning showers adding to the woes of farmers, arhtiyas and traders.
The rainfall reports from Chandigarh centre of the India Meteorological Department revealed that heavy rains were reported in different pockets of the state in the past 24 hours with the highest 80 mm of rain reported in Radaur of Yamunanagar district, 50 mm in Ambala, 40mm in Ratia of Fatehabad, 30mm in Babain and Shahbad of Kurukshetra district and 20mm in Ladwa, Jhansa and Ismailabad of Kurukshetra.
According to the weather watchers, Haryana had reported a maximum of 30 mm spots of rain during October in the past 10 years, and the maximum rains were reported in the state in the past 10 days.
“There are not enough sheds and over 90% procured and unprocured paddy is lying in the open,” said an arhtiya, Naresh Kumar of Kurukshetra.
Farmers and labourers could be seen struggling to protect their produce from the rain in the mandis.
“We can only protect it from rain but mandis are submerged and most of the produce is now soaked and there is no procurement on Tuesday,” said another arhtiya Mahinder Singh of Nilokheri grain market of Karnal district.
Even though the harvesting was at its peak, the unseasonal rains affected the harvesting and procurement operations.
As per the figures from the district authorities, out of total 8.85 lakh MT paddy has been procured in the mandis and 1.5 lakh MT of procured paddy was still lying in the mandis. While in the Kurukshetra district, out of the total 7.24 lakh MT paddy procured by the government agencies, nearly 1.95 lakh MT was still lying in the mandis.
“Rains are not required now and any disturbance in weather will adversely affect harvesting and standing crops,” said an official from the state agriculture department.
Moreover, farmers said that rain at this time is bad for mustard cultivation too as they said mustard sowing was already delayed in parts of the state due to heavy rains during the last month.
“I had sown mustard on four acres two days ago. Since the fields are underwater, these will not germinate. Now I will sow wheat, thus I will not be able to reap three crops like last year,” said Madan Lal, a farmer from Karnal’s Indri.
