The rain Gods, it seems, are showing no mercy on the agrarian state of Haryana as heavy rains continued to pour in many parts of the state adding to the woes of farmers, who are already facing extensive crop damage.
Continuing rains in the past 24 hours in Haryana have added to the troubles of farmers inflicting further damage to the standing crops and hampering wheat harvesting in the State.
Moderate to heavy rainfall lashed many parts of the State including Kurukshetra, Ambala, Kaithal, Yamunagar, Hisar, Jind, Fatehabad, Karnal among others in the past 24 hours.
The rains continued throughout Thursday in several parts of the State with Kurukshetra recording high rainfall of 52 mm in 12 hours.
Due to unseasonsal rainfall and hailstorm in Haryana in the month of February, March and April, the farmers have suffered huge losses during the ongoing Rabi Marketing season.
As per the Chandigarh Met Department, the State received excess rainfall of 466 per cent in March while in April, 591 per cent excess rainfall is witnessed so far.
“Till April 16, 31.8 mm rainfall is received in the State against normal rains of 4.6 mm while in March, heavy rainfall of 70.9 mm against normal rainfall of 12.5 mm was witnessed,” said Surender Paul, Director of Chandigarh Meteorological Department.
Also, the coming days are likely to add to the worries of farmers as the local Met Department has forecast rains on April 19 and 20 in some parts of the region.
The State Government which is conducting assessment exercise to check the crop damage is likely to compile the reports by April 20.
An official of the State Agriculture Department said that as per the reports compiled so far, the rains have damaged the wheat crop on more than 20 lakh hectares in Haryana.
And, more than two lakh hectares land have witnessed over 50 per cent crop damage.
According to the assessment reports received, the districts of Karnal, Kaithal, Hisar, Yamunagar, Rohtak are worst affected. With crop damage upto 25 per cent reported in more than 18 lakh hectares across the State and over 50 percent crop damage on more than 2 lakh hectares land, the State Government is expecting decline in the wheat production this season.
“Rain is delaying the harvesting and procurement process in the State. The wheat procurement process which is usually in full swing by Baisakhi festival in the State is yet to pick up pace due to inclement weather conditions in many parts of the State, said the official. Considering the crop damage, Haryana Government is expecting wheat production of 113.99 lakh tonnes against last season’s production of 118 lakh tonnes, he said.
Bearing huge burden of losses incurred in farming, the affected farmers are now desperately waiting for financial assistance promised by the State Government.
In the past two weeks, the State has reported more than 10 deaths of farmers who either committed suicide or died of shock and heart attack after they suffered huge losses and crop damage due to incessant rains and hailstorm.
According to National Crime Record Bureau, Haryana registered 374 farmers suicide in 2013, against 83 in neighbouring Punjab. Notably, the Haryana Human Rights Commission had recently issued a notice to the State Government taking suo motu cognizance of a media report on suicide of a farmer and had asked the Haryana Chief Secretary to send the Status report within four weeks
Given the losses the farmers have suffered in the State, Haryana Congress had demanded `30000 per acre compensation to the farmers while INlD demanded that atleast `25,000 per acre should be paid to them.
Haryana Government has announced that farmers would get compensation at the rate of `12,000 per acre and `10,000 per acre, in case of 76 to 100 per cent loss to wheat and mustard crops, respectively as against `10,000 and `7,500 given earlier.
The BJP led State Government had last month sought assistance of `1,136 crore from the Centre to compensate the loss to the crops in Haryana.