Commodity Online
NEW DELHI : Former boss of the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICAR) M V Rao said rains and cloudy weather conditions prevailing in Punjab and Haryana would not impact wheat output from the region.

However he said the current weather conditions if continues might affect the quality of wheat grown in the region but there will be no impact on the quantity and is likely to cross government's estimate of 78 million tones.



This weather may bring in the problem of “Karnal bunt” a type of disease which affects the grain and leaving a smell of rotten eggs, he said. 

There is no cure for Karnal bunt and if it spreads it may affect the exports, the former DG ICAR said.

However, the best quality wheat is produced in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The main problem will be storage as the country has the capacity to store only 50-60 million tones of food grains.

Another problem, Rao said, which the farmers may face is that the mechanical harvesting may become impossible if water enters the fields, he pointed out. But the situation will not continue as this weather is just a passing phase and things will dry-up much before the harvesting starts, he said.

Earlier, a senior Punjab Agricultural Department official said that harvesting operations may get delayed by over a week because of rains, even as Punjab and Haryana are geared up for lifting 170 lakh tonnes of wheat during Rabi marketing season 2009-10.

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