Weather plays an important role in agriculture. Small fluctuations in weather activity are very important for farmers. Due to an active western depression over the Himalayan region this week, rain and hail from Agra to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and from Chambal to Bundelkhand in MP have troubled farmers in these areas. It is time for early harvesting especially late kharif crops. At the same time, farmers who were able to sow late kharif are now finding it difficult to get time to prepare their fields before sowing rabi crops. The changing mood of the weather has increased the busyness of farmers in the Bundelkhand region of UP and MP.
The weather has taken a turn
In the rocky areas of Bundelkhand, farmers who do not grow paddy during the kharif season, sow groundnut, mung, urad and sesame crops during this season. Farmers in this area need light rains in the first week of October to harvest oilseeds during the kharif season.
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According to the weather cycle, light rains in the first week of October confirm the arrival of winter season. But, this year this rain has been delayed by about 10 days. Due to this, farmers in Bundelkhand and other surrounding areas are facing the threat of loss of their oilseed crops.
The Meteorological Department said that there was rain and hailstorm in Agra division on Tuesday. Also some eastern districts including Lucknow and most parts of Bundelkhand witnessed heavy or moderate rains with temperatures dropping to 5 degrees Celsius. This not only prevents rice crops from ripening, but also increases the risk of crop damage to oilseed farmers. Not only this, some areas of Jhansi, Datia and Jalaun districts were reported to have fallen on the ground due to strong winds.
The farmers were worried
Farmers of Bawal village in Jhansi district said that almost every crop will suffer due to the change in weather. Local farmer Karan Ahirwar said he sowed paddy and groundnut during the kharif season. Besides, preparations for sowing mustard seeds were going on in rabi season.
Karan said that groundnuts are harvested in two stages. Groundnut ripens in the first week of October in the first phase. At this time, the field gets wet with light rain. This makes it easier to uproot the crop in the field during the early stages of groundnut harvesting. If there is no rain, the farmers water the ground and uproot the groundnut crop. This increases the cost of crops. Kushwaha said that as there was no rain this year, he and other farmers of the village irrigated the land and uprooted groundnuts. Meanwhile, there is a fear of rotting crops uprooted by Tuesday’s sudden rain.
He said that in the second stage of groundnut harvesting, the trees uprooted from the field are cut with a thresher when they are dry. But due to the rain, the trees are wet. Due to this, crops cannot be harvested with thresher now. Now we have to clean it by hand and remove the peanuts. This will increase the cost of the crop and cause more damage.
Paddy was also damaged
Dinnath Kushwaha, a farmer of Bawal village, said that like the last few years, the monsoon started late this year and lasted for a long time. Due to this, it took time to sow paddy. Because of this, when the time for harvesting rice comes, farmers who sow late are waiting for the rice to ripen. He said that the late harvest is more prone to diseases, besides, due to the 10-day delay in rain in the first week of October, the paddy that was going to ripen fell in the field. Due to this, the rice farmers have suffered greatly in this rain.
Kushwaha and other farmers have also demanded the government to assess the crop damage caused by the unseasonal rains and compensate them. Farmers say rabi crops will also be sown late due to this rain. So the fear of not getting any profit in both Kharif and Rabi crops has become strong for the farmers. It may be noted that due to delayed monsoon in the last few years, farmers delayed sowing of paddy and other crops during Kharif season. Due to this, their harvesting is delayed and sowing of rabi season crops is also delayed.
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Only late peanuts are beneficial
Farmers believe that a handful of farmers benefited from the late October rains. This includes late sowing groundnut farmers. These farmers were preparing to irrigate the land before uprooting the groundnut crop from the field. Meanwhile, after a long wait, due to the sudden rain on Tuesday, saving the irrigation costs of these farmers, they have now started the work of uprooting groundnuts in a hurry.
Ram Prakash Kushwaha, a farmer of the village, said that although the rain came late, this rain came as a gift to the farmers who sowed groundnut. However, the number of such lucky farmers is not very high, as most of the farmers irrigate the land before uprooting the groundnuts.