Compensate farmers for drop in crop yield due to extreme weather: Kumari Selja

Due to a sudden rise in temperature over the past several days, wheat and sunflower crops have been affected. “Due to this, the crop production fell. The BJP-JJP alliance government should come forward to compensate farmers for their loss,” Selja said.

The Congress leader said that this time, “farmers had to work harder as compared to other years in preparing the crop for the Rabi season. Amidst the scarcity of DAP and urea fertilisers, farmers had to spend nights in the mandis during winter and then the unseasonal rains spoiled their dreams”.

She said ahead of the harvesting season, the temperature started increasing rapidly due to which crop ripened before time and wheat grain remained weak, she said.

Kumari Selja said according to experts, the wheat grain was 22 per cent weaker than normal, due to which the production had fallen by five quintals per acre.

“Thus, farmers are losing more than Rs 10,000 per acre,” she said.

Selja, a former Union minister, said farmers, who had got crop insurance, should be compensated for drop in yield and those without crop insurance, should be compensated by the state government.

The maximum temperature in Haryana has been hovering well above the normal limits for the past about three weeks.

In neighbouring Punjab, a farmers’ union had on Tuesday said there will be a drop in wheat yield in the current season because of early onset of the summer season followed by a sudden rise in temperature.

Wheat growers have also demanded adequate compensation for the loss.

“Farmers are reporting a loss of around five quintals per acre in wheat yield because of rising temperatures,” Bhartiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakohwal said on Tuesday.

The Centre had on Tuesday formed five teams to assess the shrivelled grain because of the early onset of the heatwave, following a request by the Punjab government for revisiting the specifications in the wheat procurement.