Government Keeping Tabs On Wheat Crop As Weatherman Sees Warm Winter

New Delhi: Government is keeping a close watch on temperature-sensitive wheat crop as the Met Department has predicted warmer winter this year, Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak said on Sunday.

He also said the ongoing rabi sowing has not been impacted much due to demonetisation. A central team sent to rural areas has found no significant impact on sowing so far.

Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, commenced from October and will continue till the month-end. Harvesting of the crop will start from April onwards.

As per the latest data, wheat has been sown and transplanted in 173.93 lakh hectares till last week of the 2016 rabi season, much higher than 152.56 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

"We are almost in the midst of rabi sowing and the crop acreage so far has been better than last year. The Met has projected a warmer winter, but it is too early to say and assess the impact on the crop," Pattanayak told PTI.

Stating that wheat is temperature-sensitive crop, he said it is difficult to say at this point of time if there would be warm winter throughout the season. Higher temperature would impact when the pod is formed. "We are keeping a close watch," he said.

Wheat sowing is not yet complete, it is planted in 50 per cent of the area so far. "Right now, there is no need to be alarmed," he added.

Asked if demonetisation has affected the rabi sowing operations, the secretary said, "Our farmers have witnessed very strong drought in the last two years and yet they have bounced back. I don't think it has significantly impacted."

He said India's agricultural economy has been a credit economy irrespective of whether one transacts in cash or plastic. "So, the very nature of relationship in rural areas between people and communities is such that they are quite resilient," he explained.

"We have sent our teams to distant rural places to see if they are really impacted. We found out that they have not been impacted much," he noted.

On cash crunch being faced by farmers after ban on higher  denomination notes, the secretary said the government has allowed farmers to buy seeds from old notes and fertiliser firms have been asked to sell soil nutrients on credit.

"As far as seed is concerned, we have permitted use of old notes to buy seeds. One needs to understand that 70 per cent of farmers rely on farm saved seeds, it has not really impacted."

On farmers facing difficulty in selling their produce in mandis, he said, "In first few days, there was a little confusion, but it got corrected. There was a fall in sale in some mandis initially, now the mandi operations have bounced back. Many accounts have been opened and people are preferring to get money in their account."

There might be one or two isolated cases where farmers have been affected, he added.

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