Rains lash in parts of Punjab, leave wheat growers worried

Rains lashed many parts of Punjab on Saturday, leaving farmers worried as showers accompanied by high-velocity winds flattened the wheat crop at some places in the state.

In the last 24 hours, places including Ludhiana witnessed 13.8 mm rainfall, 25.6 mm in Patiala, 6.6 mm in Pathankot, 5.8 mm in Bathinda, 11 mm in SBS Nagar, according to a report of the MeT department.

With rains lashing many places in Punjab, wheat growers were worried about their crop and said showers at this stage would hit the yield. In Hoshiarpur, high-velocity winds and rain damaged standing wheat crops in some parts of the district.

Hoshiarpur Chief Agriculture Officer Gurdev Singh said the rain and gusty winds had caused less damage to crops in the district as compared to other districts of the state.

Strong winds flattened standing wheat crop at about 150 hectares of land in Mukerian, Tanda and Sham Chaurasi areas of this district.

The exact loss to the standing crop was being assessed, said Gurdev Singh.

In Muktsar also, rains and high-velocity winds flattened the wheat crop at some places.

The farm experts had earlier advised farmers not to irrigate wheat crop to avoid losses due to lodging because of the rains and strong winds.

Punjab this season brought 34.90 lakh hectares of area under wheat crop with a projected output of 170 lakh metric tonnes.