More than 50 per cent crop damage has been reported in over one lakh acres of land in Haryana after unseasonal rainfall and hailstorm in last couple of months in the State, as per the final assessment report compiled from nine districts.
The assessment report on crop damage till April 18 has been received by the State Government from districts namely Faridabad, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Gurgaon, Kurukshetra, Rohtak, Karnal, Kaithal and Ambala. According to the report, more than 26 per cent crop damage has been reported on a total of 27,5728.7 acres of land in these nine districts. Faridabad, Kaithal, Rohtak and Gurgaon are worst affected.
26 per cent to 50 per cent crop damage is reported across 14,8823.2 acres land, 51 to 75 percent damage is reported in 30,992.8 acres and more than 76 percent to 100 per cent is reported in 95,912.7 acres land in the nine districts of the State. In case of wheat crop, 26 per cent to 50 per cent damage is reported in 14,2041.2 acres land of these districts and 76 to 100 per cent crop damage is reported in 89,794.7 acres. Due to incessant and untimely rainfall and hailstorm in Haryana in the months of February, March and April, the farmers have suffered huge losses during the ongoing Rabi Marketing season.
Facing a tough time because of adverse weather conditions, farmers from Haryana are desperately waiting for financial assistance from State authorities. In the past two weeks, the State has reported more than 12 deaths of affected farmers who either committed suicide or died of shock and heart attack.
Haryana had 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. Given the crop damage, the State Government is expecting wheat production of 113.99 lakh tonnes this season against last season’s production of 118 lakh tonnes.