While rain and hailstorms in recent days provided respite from the heat, they reportedly damaged crops in many states. The unseasonal precipitation flattened fields and damaged harvested fruits, as per reports.
IMD advised farmers of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab and Haryana to postpone harvesting. Farmers of Sikkim and West Bengal have been told to postpone the sowing of maize and jute.
The Union government said that it is yet to receive ground reports from state governments, but preliminary assessments suggest that the impact on rabi crops is not high.
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