Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers fear damage to crop as rain lashes city

Amritsar, April 18Intermittent rain during the last two days in the district has worried farmers as they fear that bad weather may result in damage to the crop which is ready for harvesting. They rue that it will further delay harvesting by four-five days.The farmers say that rain would increase the moisture content in grain and they would face difficulty at grain markets as the procurement agencies would not procure grains with moisture more than the permissible limit.The farmers say that in case it rains again in the coming days, it might cause trouble to them. “The showers at this stage are not good. Sometimes due to inclement weather conditions, farmers start panic harvesting of the crop to save losses. But it would create a problem in the present scenario when the government is already making plans to restrict the number of people at the grain markets,” said a farmer Jagtar Singh.Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Harinderjit Singh said, “The flattening of crop has been reported from some parts of the district. The rainfall received in the district ranged from 4mm to 6mm. It is scanty but would delay the harvesting.” He said no hailstorms were reported from any part of the district. The district had earlier too received rainfall in the last week and a loss of 1 to 2 per cent of yield could occur in the flattened crop fields.Dr Harinderjit said the government had also revised the timings for operation of combine harvesters. Earlier, the combine harvesters were allowed to operate from 6 am to 7 pm. However, as per the revised timings, the machines would be operated from 7 am to 8 pm. “The grains harvested in the early morning hours have more moisture content,” said the Chief Agriculture Officer.

The Tribune

2020-04-19