Impact of floods on Kharif crops output negligible, estimates likely in Nov

Farm workers working in paddy field for Kharif crop session at Kothuru Tadepalli in NTR district
| Photo Credit:
RAO GN

Some satellite based crop survey reports have shown very negligible damage to Kharif crops this year, amid speculation of a higher impact from untimely heavy rains and floods in August-September. The agriculture ministry has been finalising the inputs to announce the crop production estimates, likely in the first week of November.

In the worst affected state of Punjab, where 95 per cent of the total area cultivated under paddy, less than 2 lakh hectares were affected, sources said. This year’s paddy (including Basmati) acreage in Punjab was 32.5 lakh hectare, marginally up from last year.

According to the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC), approximately 1.50 lakh hectares (lh) of area were captured through satellite-based remote sensing, as inundated due to the floods/heavy rains. Sources said that the quality of grains was affected in about another 5-7 lh area due to heavy rains.

MNCFC’s report also says that the affected crop area (out of 1.5 lh) was about 1.36 lh which got submerged either by rain water accumulation or flood water. Majorly impacted districts are Firozpur, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Fazilka, Taran Tarn and Kapurthala. A seed industry executive said that Fazlika was most affected by the inundation and part from paddy, cotton, maize and vegetables were also affected.

In Maharashtra, another state which received heavy rains in the pre-harvesting period, the major affected districts were Nanded, Solapur, Yavatmal, Dharashiv, Beed and Ahmednagar, the sources said. Production of soybean, cotton, tur, maize, jowar, urad and moong is likely to drop from year-ago due to lower yield in affected districts and crop damage, the sources added.

In Uttar Pradesh, Farrukhabad, Badaun, Shahjahnpur, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Banda and Unnao are major affected districts from both inundation and heavy rainfall and til, urad, paddy, and vegetables were affected.

On the other hand, farmers of Hisar, Bhiwani districts in Haryana have reported partial loss in production of paddy, cotton, moong and bajra (millet) due to heavy rains. In Rajasthan, Nagaur was one of the worst affected districts where soybean, bajra, jowar (sorghum) and groundnut were impacted, the sources said.

The union agriculture ministry had selected three private agencies to undertake digital crop survey in some select states as a pilot project, parallel to the conventional system so that both are validated for accuracy, the sources said.

As on October 3, the area sown under all the Kharif crops was 1121.46 lh, compared with 1114.95 lh during the corresponding period of last year, the agriculture ministry said earlier this month. Sowing area under paddy, pulses, maize and sugarcane was higher than the year-ago period. Paddy acreage was up by nearly 6 lh and that of maize by over 10 lh.

Published on October 24, 2025