Moisture stress, mounting losses: Rain gap forces soybean growers to destroy standing crop
Pune: Around 40% of the soybean crop in the district comes under stress following a prolonged gap in rainfall during its crucial crop development stage, as per a report by the district agriculture department on kharif crops, including soybean. “About 30 to 40% of the crop was under stress in the district. As per the report, the stress has been particularly visible in Shirur, Daund, Baramati and Indapur tehsils, while several pockets of Haveli, Khed, Ambegaon and Junnar have also reported deterioration.
This was not the case last year,” Sanjay Kachole, district agriculture officer, told TOI . Sambhaji Bidgar, a soybean grower from Nhavare village in Shirur, said his crop had already withered, and now even rainfall may not be enough to recover the losses. Many farmers in the district’s major soybean-growing belts are fearing significant losses if the rainfall does not revive soon. If we do not get rainfall, the figure may go up. The prolonged gap in rainfall in Shirur, Daund, Baramati and Indapur has affected crops severely, and in several places the plantations have withered. The concern was not merely about the area currently under stress but the stage of the crop at which the rainfall deficit occurred.
Another farmer from Baramati said the impact varied from field to field depending on soil moisture and the timing of the last rainfall.