MP,UP,Bihar may see dip in wheat yield due to high temp

The increase in minimum temperature by one degree Celsius may reduce the wheat yield.

Wheat production is likely to be affected in Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh and Bihar because of increase in temperature due to climate change,Rajya Sabha was informed.

“Simulation analysis results project that wheat yields in Madhya Pradesh,Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are likely to be affected because of increase in temperature due to climate change,” Minister of State for Agriculture K V Thomas said in a written reply.

The increase in minimum temperature by one degree Celsius during reproductive stage may reduce the wheat yield by 7-10 per cent,he added.

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Thomas said the long-term rainfall analysis has been done by the Met department,Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and under network programme on climate change by Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

“The analysis indicated no long term changes in the mean annual rainfall of the country. However,spatial variability in rainfall has been noticed,” he said.

A significant decreasing trend in monsoon rainfall was noticed in the sub-division of NE India,East Madhya Pradesh,including Chhatisgarh,the minister pointed out.

At the same time,Thomas noted that increasing trends were observed along with west coast of India,North-West India covering Haryana,Punjab,Chandigarh and Delhi.

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“The winter monsoon rainfall has shown significant increase in trends in the sub-divisions of Marathwada,Telengana,North Interior Karanataka,Central India and in Goa,” he said.

Thomas said the capacity building and awareness campaign had been launched to educate the farmers to adopt the measures like frequent irrigation,use of stress tolerant varieties to mitigate the adverse effect of climatic variability,including natural calamities like drought and floods.

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