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Informist, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025

 

By Shreya Shetty

 

MUMBAI – The recent heavy rainfall in Maharashtra has damaged around 20% of kharif crops both standing and stored after harvesting, and is likely to delay the sowing of crops such as chana in the upcoming rabi season, experts and traders said. However, neither the crop loss nor the delay in sowing is likely to be a huge cause of concern, they said.

 

From Sept. 26–30, parts of the state, particularly Vidarbha, Marathwada, and central Maharashtra, received very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall in the four-month southwest rain season which officially ended on Tuesday. In the week ended Wednesday, rainfall in central Maharashtra was 132?ove normal at 86.6 millimetres, according to data from the India Meteorological Department. Rainfall was 271?ove normal at 110.9 millimetres in Marathwada and 267?ove normal at 79.6 millimetres in Vidarbha, the data showed.

 

From Jun. 1–Sept. 30, Maharashtra received 1,889.4 millimetres of rainfall, which is 20?ove the normal of 994.5 millimetres, data from the weather department showed.

 

"There are damages of up to 20?ross all kharif crops in Maharashtra," said Rahul Chauhan, director, IGrain. "Urad, moong, and cotton are the most (damaged), while soybean is lesser (than urad, moong, and cotton)."

 

"There are damages (to the standing kharif crop) mainly in the low-lying areas of Nanded, Badlapur, and Solapur," said Satish Upadhyay, secretary, India Pulses and Grains Association. "Around 20–25% of the standing tur has been damaged and urad losses are more in both the harvested and standing crop," he added.

 

Though some media reports suggest extensive damage to the standing tur crop in Maharashtra, Ankit Kedia, a trader from Akola, Maharashtra, believes otherwise. "There is no damage (to the tur crop) in Vidarbha, and while there is some damage in Latur and Nanded, it is limited to the fields which are near water bodies such as rivers," he said.

 

According to the weather department, the southwest monsoon withdraws from most of Maharashtra by Oct. 10. The withdrawal of monsoon depends on the fulfilment of certain criteria, which include the absence of rainfall over a region for at least a few consecutive days. As such, the spread and intensity of rainfall over the state usually decrease by the end of September.

 

However, this year, the withdrawal has stalled since Sept. 24 due to multiple weather systems causing rainfall over most parts of the country, the weather department said. The withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from India may continue beyond Oct. 12, Mrutyunjaya Mohapatra, director general of IMD, said.

 

Because of this, the spell of extremely heavy showers over Maharashtra caught farmers and market participants by surprise, raising panic about extensive crop damage, experts said. "Yes, we got more rain in September, but that was just for a few days," Upadhyay said, adding that it would have been more worrisome if there had been continuous heavy rainfall throughout June, July, August, and September. "Rain was in patches, not continuous, so we did not see that much loss," he said.

 

The spell of incessant rainfall over the state broke on Tuesday, bringing much-needed relief to farmers. The continuation of such weather is likely to dry up flooded fields and reverse the damage in the tur cop, Upadhyay said. "The situation (crop damage) can be reversed because there has been good sunlight in the past two days. So, 10-15% of the damage can be reversed," he said. Maharashtra is the top tur-producing state in the country.

 

Although the exact extent of crop damage is not yet known, a worrisome amount of crop loss is unlikely, said Mukesh Sanklecha, a trader from Solapur. The area under kharif crops in Maharashtra stood at 14.59 million hectares as of Monday, down nearly 1.4% from 14.79 million hectares a year ago, according to the state agriculture department.

 

The market is also worried about a delay in sowing of rabi crops as the spell of rain has paused harvest of some kharif crops and left fields wetter than what is ideal. The high levels of soil moisture are not favourable for sowing chana, experts and traders said. Maharashtra is among the top producers of chana in the country.

 

Once the harvest of kharif crops wraps up, farmers wait at least 10 days to re-sow the land with rabi crops, Kedia said. Usually, the sowing of chana in Maharashtra begins after Dusshera, which takes place in the first week of October, he said. With the delay in harvest and high soil moisture levels, the sowing of chana could be delayed until after Diwali, or till the last week of October, he said.

 

"Even if we sow it (chana) after one day of sunlight, the seeds will end up growing fungus in a damp environment, so farmers will have to wait," Upadhyay said. However, he said it is not a cause for concern, as "we have the entirety of October open as the sowing window."

 

"There will not be much delay – soil moisture may delay harvest by some time, but sowing not as much," Chauhan said. "Only pockets of Maharashtra will see a bit of delay in sowing, which is unlikely to affect overall sowing."

 

The market will keep an eye on how the weather will play out in October, Upadhyay said. If the rainfall remains heavy during October, then the delay in sowing rabi crops could be stretched further, which would be "really concerning," he said.  End

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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