Skymet Predicts Wheat production in India Would Rise by 10.6% Owing to Good Rainfall in January & Ample Soil Moisture Due to Excessive Rains

Skymet Weather Services - India’s largest private weather monitoring and Agri-risk Solutions Company has released the first volume of the ‘Rabi Report’ for the year 2020. The report talks about the fact that India received an extremely good amount of rainfall during Monsoon and post Monsoon time frame. The first fortnight of January across major Rabi crop producing states also received adequate rains which have been quite beneficial for the overall health of the crop.

2019 has been a year of extremes. It had the wettest Southwest Monsoon in the last 25 years with 110% departure. Record floods were experienced in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra as a result. Besides witnessing record numbers of cyclones (9) in the Indian Seas, it has also recorded the longest cold spell over North India during December. Extremely heavy snowfall has been recorded across all the northern hills from October to December. On one hand, extreme heat wave conditions were prevalent during the pre-Monsoon season (April – June 2019), while on the other, the post-Monsoon season (October- December 2019) witnessed a large country-wide surplus.

Good rains recorded during Monsoon and the post-Monsoon season has helped reservoirs to fill. This has boost sowing of the Rabi crop, which is clearly indicated by the sowing numbers so far. Availability of good soil moisture across major producing states has also laid the foundation for better crop productivity. Of course, other aspects like temperatures in winters (mainly for crops like wheat) will play a vital role in production. Changes in seasonal temperature affect the grain yield, mainly through phenological development processes.

In this report, they have deeply analyzed the impact of weather on the major Rabi crops and anticipated the changes that could occur on the production side. Through this analysis, Skymet has arrived at the outcome that Wheat production in the country would go up by 10.6% to 113.06 million tons in the Rabi season of 2019-20, as compared to 102.19 million tons produced in the previous year.

Bengal gram production is expected to go up by 5% to 10.66 million tons, as compared to 10.13 million tons produced in the previous season. Rise in production is attributed to rise in total acreages this season.

Rapeseed and Mustard production is expected to go up by 1.4% to 9.46 million tons as compared to 9.33 million tons produced in the previous season.