Heavy rains hit standing, harvested crops in state

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast more rains for the state in the next 72 hours, which the agriculture department fears will damage more ready crops.

Senior officers said the rain had damaged both standing and harvested crops. Work on assessing the total losses has started and the figures are expected soon. “However, preliminary data shows that grapes, onions, maize, soyabean, cotton and standing vegetable crops have been badly hit. In Nashik, where the rains have been exceptionally heavy, vineyards and onion fields have been hit. In Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg, the rains will delay the mango season as many of the trees were in the flowering stage,” said a senior official.

Both Ratnagiri and Sindudhurg districts of Konkan have reported heavy rains in the last 24 hours. Omkar Sapre, adviser to Devgad Mango, said the rains would delay the production of Alphonso mangoes. “October-November is technically not the season when the mango trees flower but the buds set in during this time. Some of the trees had started flowering and they have been hit,” he said.

Sapre said the rains would affect the upcoming mango season. “The flowering will start late and as a result the fruits that hit the market in March will be delayed in 2015,” he said.

Alphonso mangoes, which start flowering close to November, will be hit more. Maharashtra has more than 4 lakh hectares under mango and the average yield of the fruit is around 5 lakh metric tonnes. Estimates say around 30 per cent of the area has been affected.

Rohan Ursal, a wholesale mango merchant from Pune’s Market Yard, said the Ratnagiri mangoes would be hit and Alphonso mangoes would arrive late.

Nashik has been witnessing heavy rains in the talukas of Satana, Malegaon, Kalwan and Chandwad. Other than vineyards, these areas also substantially contribute to the production of onion. C B Holkar, member of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED), said around 32,000 hectares of land in the district was under onion. “Most of the crop was ready for harvest but the rains will now destroy the crop. We are getting reports that at many places the harvested crops lying on the fields were affected too,” he said.

Holkar said the rains would result in a shortage of onion supply in December, by when the Karnataka onion won’t be ready. “While there will be no price rise this month, chances of a sharp rise in December can’t be ruled out,” he said.

Sopan Kanchan, president of the Grape Growers Association, said the state had around 70,000 hectares of vineyards centered around Nashik, which were affected due to the rains. “The vineyards that were in the flowering stage have been adversely affected. The IMD has given a forecast of rains for the next three days, which is worrisome for the crop,” he said.