The above normal temperatures sans any winter rain in the winter season consisting of December and January so far has already affected rabi sowing. The 14% deficit monsoon rainfall followed by warmer winter in 2015-2016 is likely to leave Indian farmers staring at a lower than normal yield of wheat, pulses and oilseeds.
Area sown under wheat is already down by 7.4 % at 271.46 lakh hectare, while that of pulses by 2.35 % at 128.24 lakh hectare in the first three months of the ongoing rabi season, beginning from October, due to dry winters.
Abysmal winter season has resulted in a reduction in the area sown under Rabi crops in comparison to the last year. According to data from Agriculture ministry, 541.12 lakh hectares of area was sown under Rabi crops as on January 1 this year as opposed to 567.63 lakh hectares of area sown in 2014-15. Sowing of wheat has been 5.6 per cent lesser compared to last year, the deficit for pulses and oilseeds is 7 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.
The deficit of rain during Southwest Monsoon, Northeast Monsoon and winter season in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Peninsular India is expected to result in shortfall in wheat, mustard and gram.
Winter this year has remained dismally warm due to a string of feeble western disturbances that usually leads to icy winds, lower temperatures across plains of North India and snowfall over hills of North India.
A western disturbance has brought rainfall in some parts of Punjab and Haryana, Delhi during the morning hours due to which temperatures are likely to dip in Delhi-NCR, hoping to bring some respite to farmers.
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