Wheat on 2.7L hectares in Jalandhar, Ludhiana hit

Aparna Banerji & Nitin Jain

Jalandhar/Ludhiana, April 7

Over 30 per cent of wheat crop has been damaged in Jalandhar district after the recent rains and thunderstorms.

DEMAND FOR HIGHER COMPENSATION

• Farm unions have called for Rs 40,000 to 50,000 compensation per acre
• Gurpreet Singh Atwal, a farmer from Chaharke village said, “The CM used to say before the elections that compensation will be awarded the moment it rains and farmers won’t be harassed. What happened to those promises?”
• Nirmal Singh of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, said, “Half the crop has been flattened in villages of my region. On my 15-acre farm, damage has been 50 per cent on 14 acres. The yield has been reduced to 12 to 15 quintal per acre from the expected 20 to 25 quintal per acre.”

According to a preliminary assessment carried out by the Agriculture Department, of the nearly 4.5 lakh acres, which is under wheat cultivation, the crop has been damaged on around 1,45,000 acres.

Around 40-50 per cent damage has occurred in the Nakodar-Mehatpur-Uggi belt and some areas of Shahkot.

The department said the girdawari was being conducted by the Revenue Department to pay compensation to farmers. Farm unions have called for Rs 40,000 to 50,000 compensation per acre.

Chief Agricultural officer, Jalandhar, Jaswant Singh said, “The damage has been between 30 per cent and 33 per cent in Jalandhar. In certain areas in Nakodar Uggi and Mehtapur, the losses have been more.”

With the peasants of the state’s largest district, in both area and population, Ludhiana, staring at massive losses, preliminary estimates suggest that over half of the total standing wheat crop and at least 25 per cent of ready-to-harvest mustard crop have been hit by the inclement weather.

At least 1,25,000 hectares, which constitutes 51.44 per cent of the total 2.43 lakh hectares of ready-to-ripe wheat, fell flat.

A minimum of 700 hectares, which accounts for 25 per cent of the total 2,800 hectares, of near-mature mustard crop was also flattened due to inundating of fields and strong winds.

However, back-to-back sunny days in the past week have revived hopes of a majority of the affected farmers. The waterlogged fields are being drained through various means and the flattened crops are being lifted again.

DC Surabhi Malik had directed the officials concerned to conduct a factual and fair survey

According to current estimates, 20 to 33 per cent of standing wheat crop on at least 99,700 hectares had been damaged. On another 25,300 hectares of ready-to-harvest wheat, 33 and 75 per cent plants had been damaged.

On the mustard front, at least 610 hectares of standing crop had suffered damage between 20 and 33 per cent while another 140 hectares of ready-to-ripe mustard plants had been damaged between 33 and 75 per cent.

While no other standing crop has been found damaged in the fields so far, the maximum damage to the wheat and mustard crops was caused by the lodging of fields and is expected to cause a yield loss between 25 and 30 per cent, say experts.