NEW DELHI, India – Unusually hot weather in northern and central India is likely to hit the country’s wheat crop, which is getting ready for harvest, a top farm scientist reports.
“The wheat grains were shaping very well and the country was likely to produce a record crop but hot weather in the past two weeks has done the damage,” said Jag Shoran, head of the state-run directorate of wheat research.
The country is expected to produce around 74 million tonnes of wheat, down from previous estimates of up to 78 million, Shoran said.
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“Varieties which were sown late in December will be hit by this unusually warm weather. This was the hottest March in the past five years.”
He said temperatures in most growing areas in northern and central India in March were five to seven degrees higher than the normal level of 32 C.
“In places like Punjab where sowing took place in October and November and grain formation had taken place by March, the damage is not that much.”
Wheat harvests in the northwestern Punjab state have begun while in the other regions, where late varieties were sown, the crop will be ready by the end of April, he said.
Shoran said the entire wheat crop was free from disease, including karnal bunt, a fungus not harmful to humans but which has a bad smell.
He said the output will be higher than 65.1 million tonnes last year, when the country faced the worst drought in 15 years.
Wheat acreage has risen this year to more than 64 million acres from 58 million acres last year because of good monsoon rains in 2003 and excellent weather during sowing.
“A big increase in area of around two million hectares (five million acres) has come from Madhya Pradesh where people depend more on rains for irrigation,” Shoran said.
The central state of Madhya Pradesh pro-duces high protein durum used for making noodles and pasta. This variety of wheat, dependent largely on rains, suffered losses last year because of a failure of monsoon rains.
Shoran estimated production of export-quality durum at five million tonnes compared with three million a year ago.
