Journalism of Courage
A weeks delay in onset of monsoon has increased vegetable prices in the city markets and prices will remain high for at least a month,market observers said.
Due to delay in monsoon,the arrival of vegetables in the market has gone down last week. Even if the rains begin by next week,it would at least take a month to bring down vegetable prices. Vegetable prices might further increase in the coming weeks as the non-appearance of pre-monsoon showers has resulted in low production of crops, said Vilas Bhujbal,a wholesaler and former chairman of the Pune Agriculture Produce Market Committee.
For many years now,monsoon has never arrived after June 7. Even if it is delayed,the summer crop can survive on pre-monsoon showers but this year there has hardly been any of it thus bringing down production, Bhujbal said.
However,farmers are not worried that the delay would have any considerable impact on crop yields.
There would be a delay in sowing because of late onset of rains but if the delay is not more than 8-10 days then it will not have any considerable impact on crop yield. However,if the sowing gets delayed by more than two weeks then it is bound to reflect on the seasonal crop yields, said Sriram Gadhave,president,All India Vegetables Growers Association.
Ravi Devang,president of Shetkari Sanghatna,however,warns that if rains are delayed by more than a week it could result in lower yields of rainfed food crops. For rainfed crops,it is important that they be sown between first and third week of June. If the rains do not start by next week and sowing is further delayed then it can result in low foodgrain yields, he said.
