Punjab records 30% surplus rain in Sept, but paddy crop safe

The majority districts of the state could do away with irrigation this time as the rain was good enough to deal with the water requirements of several long-duration paddy varieties.

Farmers stop watering paddy crops 15 to 20 days before harvesting. While the main harvesting season in the state will start from October 1, the recent rain may delay the harvesting by a week in several districts.

Surprisingly, Bathinda district has reported no damage to the crop despite recording the second highest rainfall in September with 111% surplus rain to date.

“In Bathinda, our crops are more and less safe as the first picking of the cotton crop has already taken place in the state and the second is almost ready, but now it will get delayed by a few days. But paddy is safe,” Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) Bathinda Pakhar Singh said, adding that “we are praying there are no more rain”.

“In our district (Mansa), the crop got submerged under water on 1,100 hectares and in the remaining area, the water has been drained out to a large extent. If we can drain out the water from the submerged crop then it can survive to some extent. As far as cotton is concerned, it may face some discolouration, but at the moment nothing concrete can be said,” said CAO Mansa Satpal Singh.

In Amritsar also, where Basmati 1509 is sown in a large area, the crop is safe.

CAO Amritsar J S Gill said that the rain was just normal here and harvesting of Basmati 1509 has already been completed in majority areas of the district.
Moga also reported 77% surplus rain. CAO Moga Manjit Singh said that out of 1.80 lakh hectares under rice cultivation, crop lodging was reported in 3,000 hectares, but it can be recovered if there is proper sunshine in the coming days.

Sources in Punjab Agriculture Department said that if farmers sow crops in riverbeds, they get inundated with water even with mild rain.

Though Pathankot received 52% surplus rain, no damage to crops was reported from the district, according to CAO Pathankot Dr Amrik Singh.

“We have been collecting reports from all the districts regarding the impact of rain on crops. According to the preliminary reports, there is no crop loss in majority of the districts in the state. Some 3-4 districts have reported lodging in paddy crops and water stagnation in some low-lying areas,” Dr Gurvinder Singh, Director of Punjab Agriculture Department, said, adding that “now we have to calculate the loss in these districts in the coming days”. He said that ‘rice crop’ does not need any more rain now, as the crop has already entered the last phase.

Both Punjab and Haryana have recorded surplus rain in September.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, Chandigarh office, Punjab recorded a rainfall of 96.5 mm in September against the normal rainfall of 74.3 mm which is a 30% surplus for the month.

In Punjab, eight out of 23 districts recorded deficit rainfall, while two got close to normal rain and 13 districts recorded surplus rain in September, which is the last month of the rainy season (June 1 to September-end). Punjab’s actual rainfall is 413.7 mm in this rainy season to date against the normal required 436.4 mm.

Two districts have recorded more than 100% surplus rain in the state, including Mansa (184% surplus) and Bathinda (111% surplus), while Ludhiana recorded 98% surplus rain.

The other districts with surplus rain were Moga (77%), Fatehgarh Sahib (72%), Mohali (70%), Gurdaspur (63%), Sangrur (53%), Pathankot (52%), Patiala (38%), Barnala (28%), and Jalandhar (20%).

The districts which recorded deficit rain included Fazilka (75% deficit rain), Muktsar (40% less), Nawanshahr and Ropar (20% less each), Faridkot (17% less), Hoshiarpur (4% less), Kapurthala (3% less) and Tarn Taran (2% less).

The remaining two districts – Amritsar and Ferozepur – received close to normal rain.

Haryana witnessed 138.1 mm of rainfall in September against the normal required 75.2 mm which is 84% surplus rain. In the first three months of the rainy season, Haryana had recorded just 327.2 mm of rainfall against the required 353.3 mm. But the last month of the rainy season witnessed such heavy rain that the state has already surpassed the normal rain required in the state from June 1 to date which should have been 428.7 mm, but the state recorded 465.3 mm of rainfall in the same period.

Punjab’s overall rainfall in this monsoon (June 1 to date) is just 5% less than normal.

In Haryana, nine out of 22 districts have received more than 100% surplus rain. In Fatehabad (330% surplus), Gurgaon (255% surplus), Mahendergarh (184%), Jhajjar (163%), Nuh (146%), Karnal (145%), Hisar (138%), Kurukshetra (136%), and Rohtak (131%) surplus rain was recorded in September out of which heavy downpour was recorded in just past five days.