The recent heavy rains in northern India have adversely affected Kharif crops in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Punjab, crops have been affected in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Fazilka and many other districts due to flood waters of the Beas and the Sutlej rivers.
On the other hand, due to heavy floods in the Yamuna, crops have been damaged in Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Karnal districts of Haryana. Loss of crops has been reported from Saharanpur, Shamli and Baghpat districts in western Uttar Pradesh too.
Former Chairman of National Rainfed Area Development Authority and former Deputy Director General, NRM (Natural Resource Management), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr JS Samra told Rural Voice that ready-to-harvest summer maize, cotton, paddy and moong dal in Tarntaran, Amritsar, Fazilka and surrounding districts have been badly damaged. He said that the swirling flood waters would wash away freshly transplanted paddy, though chances of damage to paddy transplanted a week earlier were less.
Samra said that there has been damage to crops in areas on both sides of the Sutlej and the Beas. Both these rivers meet near Harike, where the possibility of damage is greater. At the same time, the breach of canal embankment in Jalandhar has adversely affected the crops. Maize, moong, paddy and cotton are the crops which have suffered maximum damage in Punjab.
On the other hand, due to the release of more than three lakh cusecs of water from the Hathinikund barrage on Yamuna River, crops have been damaged in many districts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on both sides of the river. In these states, vegetable crops have been ruined in the flood-hit areas. At the same time, there is a possibility of heavy damage to crops of Sathi paddy and 1509 variety of paddy. In these areas, Sathi paddy crop is ready to ripen or is near to ripening.
In such a situation, the complete submergence of the crop in water is creating a situation of huge loss to the farmers. Crops up to a distance of about six kilometres have been affected in the Yamuna side of Saharanpur district. Along with this, if there is more rain in the hilly areas of Himachal and Uttarakhand, then flood water can inundate more areas. This can increase the damage. The India Meteorological Department has issued a forecast of rain in these areas in the next few days.
Some farmers in Amritsar and Tarn Taran areas have also brought new maize harvester machines to harvest the crop. Dr Samra says that the rent for harvesting through this machine is up to Rs 15,000 per acre. In such a situation, it is not easy for the farmers to pay high rent because after paying this amount, farmers will hardly make any profit. Dr Samra says that the loss has increased due to non-silting of the drainage system in the flood-prone areas of Punjab.
In some places, during floods, the farmers themselves have worked to remove silt and grass from the drains through JCB machines.