India’s wheat production in 2023 is expected to be a record 112 million tonnes as good weather pushed the acreage under the staple to 34.1 million hectares, 12% higher than the five-year average of 30.4 million, two officials from the agriculture ministry said. A bumper harvest, necessary to lift farm incomes, cool food inflation and replenish low wheat stocks, is “certain” if the weather continues to be “favourable and conducive” in the next two months, especially around harvesting, an official said, seeking anonymity.
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India’s wheat production in 2023 is expected to be a record 112 million tonnes as good weather pushed the acreage under the staple to 34.1 million hectares, 12% higher than the five-year average of 30.4 million, two officials from the agriculture ministry said. A bumper harvest, necessary to lift farm incomes, cool food inflation and replenish low wheat stocks, is “certain” if the weather continues to be “favourable and conducive” in the next two months, especially around harvesting, an official said, seeking anonymity. Wheat-damaging heatwaves in early summer in the food-bowl states of northwest India are becoming more frequent. As temperatures soared past 40 degrees Celsius in March last year, the hottest on record, farmer Gurbaksh Nagi of Punjab’s Mansa district noticed that stalks of his maturing grains had turned brown from yellow, a sign they had shriveled. Last year’s losses came on the heels of a similar heatwave in 2010 and a milder one in 2019. They signal the risks ...
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