Unseasonal rainfall across central India has damaged one-third of Maharashtra’s cultivated land, sending onion prices up by 25% over four days after stagnant water damaged crops and made harvests impossible.
The constant downpour in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Telangana since October caused widespread damage to crops including soyabean, cotton, paddy, maize, jowar, bajra and ragi and high-value horticulture crops such as grapes, pomegranates and vegetables.
A high-level official of the relief and rehabilitation department of the Maharashtra state government said, “According to our preliminary estimates, the unseasonal rainfall has damaged crops on 54.22 lakh hectares, which is one-third of the total cultivated area of the state.”
“Damage is very high in case of crops like soyabean, paddy and cotton”he added.
The state government has announced assistance of Rs 10,000 crore for farmers affected by the calamity, he said.
Onion prices jumped to Rs 49/kg on November 2 at the Lasalgaon market from Rs 39/kg on October 30 as continuous rainfall delayed the harvest of fresh kharif crops.