Rabi crops sowing hit by both floods & drought: Agriculture Minister

New Delhi: Sowing of rabi crops like wheat has been affected due to both drought and floods this year and the government is taking steps to minimise the impact, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said Thursday.

"Agricultural crops have been affected for the third straight season due to adverse weather conditions in last 18 months of the Modi government," Singh said while addressing a farm machinisation event 'Agrimach' here.

In 2014, kharif (summer) crops were affected due to 12 percent deficit rains, while rabi (winter) crops like wheat got damaged due to unseasonal rains and hailstorm, he said.

"This year too, kharif crops were affected due to drought situation in the wake of 14 percent deficit rains. Now, rabi crops are facing both drought and floods," he said.

The government is taking measures to reduce the impact of such natural calamities, he said adding "We cannot stop the natural calamities but we can reduce its impact with use of new technologies and contingency plan."

Sowing of rabi crops has begun from October. The ongoing sowing operation of rabi crops has been affected due to high temperature in some parts as well as floods in South India, especially in Tamil Nadu.

The total area sown to wheat and other rabi crops is lagging behind at 317.96 lakh hectare till last week of the ongoing rabi season compared with 372.61 lakh hectare in the year-ago period, as per the government data.

Stating the government is promoting farm machinsation in a big way, the Minister said the government has allocated Rs 773 crore for this fiscal under various schemes to encourage farmers purchase about 6.80 lakh farm machineries.

Since small farmers cannot afford to purchase costlier machiners, the government has set up custom hiring centres as well as testing centres to check the quality of the machineries, he said.

Singh also said farm power availability need to be enhanced to 2 kilowatt per hectare by 2020 from the current level of 1.83 kilowatt per hectare, for achieving foodgrains production of 280 million tonnes.

The Minister also said the government is encouraging foreign farm machineries companies to invest in India and many of them have show interest.