Chandigarh, December 15
The first winter rain across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has gladdened. the farmers.
Farm experts said the rain was likely to augment the area under dry crops like gram, pulses, oilseed and even wheat. Farmers could hope to get better wheat and other rabi crops this year.
According to information collected from the Meteorological and state Agricultural Departments, most areas had received a light-to-medium rainfall. A moderate rainfall or snowfall was forecast at many places in Himachal in the next 48 hours. Rains or thundershowers would occur at many places in Haryana and a few places in Punjab. Ambala district of Haryana today registered the highest rainfall of 13 mm. Hisar registered 13.2 mm of rainfall, followed by Kurukshetra (10 to 12 mm), Bhiwani (5 to 10 mm), Karnal (12.4 mm), Sonepat (3 mm), Panipat (2 to 3 mm) and Jind (15 mm).
A senior official of the Department of Agriculture, Haryana, said: “Due to adequate rain this season, the area under gram, pulses, barley and oilseed crops had substantially increased, especially in southern districts. The area under gram is expected to increase from 55,000 hectares during last year to 1.72 lakh hectares this year.”
In Punjab, Amritsar recorded 11 mm of rainfall, followed by
Nawanshahar (2.2 mm), Ropar (3.6 mm), Ludhiana (5.6 mm), Gurdaspur (5 mm), Jalandhar (3 to 4 mm), Patiala (5 mm) and Sangrur district (4 mm).
Dr Ajmer Singh, Director, Department of Agriculture, Punjab, said about 80 per cent of the sowing of wheat (32.75 lakh hectares) in the state was over. With better rain this season, the area under gram, barley, pulses and oilseeds would increase marginally.
