Monsoon rain boon for kharif crops, Haryana farmers jubilant

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, July 4

Rain lashed Hisar and adjoining districts this morning bringing cheer to farmers as this would benefit kharif crops such as paddy, cotton, guar, groundnut etc.

Though the monsoon rains have inundated urban areas, these have proved to be a boon to the kharif crops in Hisar, Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Sirsa and Jind districts.

The farmers said the kharif crops, mainly cotton, bajra and paddy needed irrigation. The agriculture experts said the cotton crop needed watering at this stage.

“The concentration of cotton plants per acre has come down from 6,000-8,000 average to around 4,000 average per acres due to the extreme hot conditions. A good spell of rain and average monsoon season will revive the cotton plants and make up for the loss to an extent,” said Dr Karmal Singh, agriculture scientist at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University in Hisar.

Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad district are known as the cotton belt of Haryana. A number of farmers have switched over to alternative crops due to two consecutive crop failures on account of adverse weather and problem of pink bollworm in the region.

A farmer, Satish Beniwal of Chuli Deswali village in Adampur block of Hisar, said all kharif crops, including cotton, groundnut, bajra and paddy were bearing the brunt of dry summer and extreme temperature.

He said he had begun growing groundnut due to two consistent cotton crop failures in the previous years. “It requires little water and is impacted less by the pink bollworm. But when the temperature hovers around 48 °C for days together, the crop bears the brunt. However, the rain has brought respite,” he said. The Deputy Director of Agriculture, Hisar, Dr Rajbir Singh, said the recent rains have had a positive impact on all kharif crops. Though the paddy crop needs more irrigation, the kharif crops that need less water including cotton, bajra and groundnuts, have revived after the showers.

Prof ML Khichar, head of agriculture meteorological department at Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, said the showers were likely in different parts of the state till July 7 due to active monsoon in south west.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) Hisar has received an average of 36.5 mm rainfall and Bhiwani 44.2 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Mahendragarh district has recorded the highest rainfall of 87.4 mm while Gurugram district has recorded 70.8 mm from June 1 to date. Nuh too has received 80 mm, Panipat 62.7 mm and Rewari 58.1 mm, as per the IMD data.