But the grain production is unlikely to be affected.
Wheat production may scale new peak.
Last year, wheat coverage in Punjab was 34.59 lakh hectares (lh). This year, it has declined to 33.91 lh. Similarly, the acreage in Haryana has dropped to 24.01 lh (24.50 lh) and Rajasthan to 16.92 lh (17.39 lh).
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal today accepted the demand of state MLAs to include protection of crops from wild animals by employing rakhas (guards) under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
BHUBANESWAR: The 12-member Central team saw for itself the enormity of the drought and crop loss in the State. There has been impact and the loss is significant, the team admitted today after having toured six of the 15 drought-hit districts.
BHUBANESWAR: The BJP today claimed that Jogendra Choudhury, a marginal farmer of Kamarsahi village of Jharpada gram panchayat under Kantapara block in Cuttack district committed suicide due to crop loss and loan burden.
SAMBALPUR: A Central team will be visiting the district on Wednesday to assess loss of crops for extending financial assistance to the State Government.
Close on the heels of the Rs 353 crore Deen Dayal Kisan-Bhagwan Samridhi Yojna to encourage protected cultivation, the government has come out with a Rs 267 crore master plan for crop diversification to ensure better returns to farmers from small land holdings in the hilly terrain.
The first rain of the winter season brought big relief to farmers in the region. Crops were being damaged due to frost and lack of irrigation for the past few weeks. Farmers of Kandi area in Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Gurdaspur and Ropar districts were the happiest, as this region has hardly any source of irrigation other than rainfall.
If scientists of the Punjab Agricultural Department are to go by then the cause for the alarming deterioration rate of sheesham (Dalbergia sisso) and kikar (Acacia nilotica) trees and other agricultural crops across the state has been discovered.
According to scientists, it is a kind of pest, which is responsible for causing damage to the crop by infecting it with termite.
