Wheat farmers expect bumper crop in Ambala, Kurukshetra

Nitish Sharma

Ambala, March 17

Wheat farmers in Ambala and Kurukshetra are expecting a bumper crop this year on account of the prolonged cold weather conditions and no major outbreak of disease in the crop.

The area coverage for wheat is 82,000 hectares in Ambala and 1.14 lakh hectares in Kurukshetra. Rakesh Kumar, a Shahabad-based farmer, said, “Wheat requires cold weather conditions to thrive and the crop is looking good as the weather has been favourable. Prolonged winter and rains have increased the hopes of a good yield. If the weather conditions continue to remain favourable, we are expecting a bumper crop this year.”

Malkit Singh, a farmer from Saha, said, “The cold weather provides the necessary chill factor for optimal crop development. The crop is looking good so far, but even last year a sudden increase in the temperature had caused yield loss to the farmers. The farmers who have sown late varieties may suffer some damage if there is any sudden increase in the temperature otherwise the farmers are likely to harvest a rich crop.”

Similarly, Rajiv Kumar, another farmer, said, “We have been regularly visiting our fields and the crop is looking healthy. Luckily, the crop was not affected by any disease and the rains in the recent past were beneficial.”

Agriculture (Ambala) Deputy Director Ambala Jasvinder Singh Saini said, “No major disease was reported in the fields and the weather has been favourable. We are expecting that the farmers will have a good yield this year. The crop had suffered some damage in Shahzadpur area during the hailstorm, but a good recovery has been witnessed and a couple of rains in the recent past proved to be beneficial for the crop. The harvesting will start around the first week of April.”

Agriculture (Kurukshetra) Deputy Director Surinder Malik said, “The farmers will have a good production this year. It is unlikely to see any impact of the rising temperature on the crop as half of the month of March has already passed, and slight cold conditions still prevail at night.”