Chandigarh, April 8 – Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian urged the Central government on Wednesday to send a high-level team to assess the damage caused to wheat and other Rabi crops by unseasonal heavy rainfall accompanied by hailstorms in the state.
In a letter to Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the minister highlighted the severe impact of inclement weather on wheat crops.
He said that wheat sown on 35 lakh hectares was expected to yield a bumper crop, but incessant rainfall and hailstorms have caused significant damage, putting the farming community in distress.
“According to the preliminary assessment by the state Agriculture Department, crop loss has been reported on over 1.30 lakh acres. The damage is spreading as the rain continues, and the final figure may rise,” Khudian said.
He added that the damage is not limited to wheat alone, as vegetables, fodder, and other Rabi crops have also been affected in multiple districts, including Fazilka, Ferozepur, Muktsar Sahib, Bathinda, Amritsar, Moga, and Mansa. Crop losses are threatening the livelihoods of farmers and the state's agrarian economy.
Khudian said the state has already ordered a special ‘girdawari’ to assess the crop damage. Given the scale of losses and the financial strain on farmers, he sought immediate relief and compensation from the Centre.
He emphasised that a Central team is urgently needed for a detailed assessment, while assuring that the state government remains committed to supporting its farmers and will extend all necessary cooperation to the Central team.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal appealed to Punjabis to stand united to help distressed farmers whose standing wheat crop had been damaged across 1.25 lakh acres.
The SAD President, who held a meeting with the party's leaders here, said a detailed plan had been charted to start distribution of wheat as well as dry and green fodder to the affected farmers after April 20.
“We are creating nodal points for the collection of the relief material, which then will be distributed in the affected villages,” he said.
Badal added that the party was arranging balers to create bales in the fields of affected farmers, free of cost, so they could earn additional money.
He said the party would also try to extend help to small farmers whose vegetable produce had been damaged by the hailstorms.