Heavy unseasonal rainfall across Uttar Pradesh has pushed back harvesting of paddy crops and damaged the ripe summer-sown crops such as paddy, coarse cereals or millets, soybean and pulses.
The potato crop sown in October has also been damaged which could stoke prices.
Officials said that damage to the crops was likely to push up food prices further. Higher prices could also force the government to put more curbs on rice exports.
According to Uttar Pradesh Rice Mills Association, around 60 per cent of the standing paddy crops have been impacted because of rainfall this month.
The rice millers have asked the government to relax the norm for paddy procurement by state agencies.
Standing crops of potato and pulses too have been damaged by rains. The Met department said that 67 out of the total 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh recorded excess rainfall since October 1.
During the south-western monsoon period (June-September), Uttar Pradesh received 28 per cent less rainfall than the normal benchmark. Fifty-three districts out of 75 in the state recorded deficient monsoon rainfall which resulted in a 4 per cent decline in paddy sowing to 5.7 million hectares compared to the previous year.
Farmers in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh, who have sown tur and paddy, are worried because of the inundation of their fields because of heavy downpours in the last couple of days.
The Agriculture department is yet to assess the impact of the steps to salvage the standing crops. Meanwhile, the state government has started to conduct damage assessment surveys of kharif crops. Such is the extent of damage to the paddy crops by the heavy downpour that farmers said that they would have to buy rice in order to feed their families.
Uttar Pradesh, the second biggest producer of rice, has a share of around 13 per cent in the country's rice production of 124.27 MT in the 2020-21 crop year (July-June).
