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Big News Farmers: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday that no effect of high temperature has been seen on the wheat crop so far. It is too early to say anything about the possible impact. On whether there has been any adverse impact on the wheat crop during the start of harvesting in some states like Madhya Pradesh, Tomar said that weather challenges are always there for agriculture, but I think there is no such situation as of now. It would be too hasty to say that there has been any impact. Tomar said this in a separate conversation during a program of ‘Plant Based Food Industry Association’ (PBFIA) here. Wheat is a major rabi (winter-sown) crop.
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The government constituted a committee on February 20 to monitor the situation arising out of abnormal rise in temperature and its effect on the wheat crop and also issued necessary advisories to the farming community to save the crop. The decision to form the committee was taken due to above normal temperature in some parts of the country. India’s wheat production in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June) declined to 107.74 million tonnes from 109.59 million tonnes in the previous year due to heatwave conditions in some major producing states. The Center had banned wheat exports in May last year to contain rising prices after a marginal decline in domestic production and a sharp fall in FCI procurement for the central pool.
The government has estimated a record 112.18 million tonnes of wheat production in the 2022-23 crop year as per the second advance estimate of the Ministry of Agriculture. Earlier this month, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra had said, “No heat wave is expected to harm the wheat crop in the next two weeks, which is a critical period for grain formation.” AK Singh, director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), said last month that temperatures below 35 degrees Celsius were not a cause of concern for the wheat crop.
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