Punjab flood effect: Punjab’s latest floods are alarm bell for food safety, food prices have been in danger of increasing wildly. Punjab has been declared a state of disaster due to floods. Paddy crop has been severely affected primarily in all 23 districts in cultivation spread over three lakh hectares. Experts are expected to speed up crop prices. Which can affect the purchase made for the government’s public distribution system. Natural disaster has come at a time when there was only some time left for the crop to be ready. Most of the agricultural land has been submerged by the floods of rivers. Due to which crops of wheat, coarse grains, maize, tide etc. have been badly affected. Agricultural policy experts believe that this will have a profound impact on the PDS system.
Under the public distribution system, the government provides food security to ensure food security at low prices or required food grains such as rice, wheat and Chinese low income families. In this system, Punjab and Haryana are the major states producing food grains. For the PDS system, Punjab gives most rice to state agencies and FCI. The farmers of the state provide rice at the minimum support price.
Basmati rice will crave
Heavy rains and floods in the border state have reduced 25 to 25 percent of basmati production. Due to which exporters have feared global supply to be affected. Punjab’s contribution to India’s exports in 2024-25 was around 6,07 million tonnes of about 6,07 million tonnes.
Ashok Sethi, director of Punjab Rice Milllers and Exporter Association, said that continuous rains are going on, which has made it difficult to guess how many crops, how many lives, how many animals and homes have come to disaster. Industry sources say that about 1.5 lakh acres of basmati crop has been affected by the current flood. Punjab Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khutian has also said that about 2.5 lakh hectares of crop has been affected due to heavy rains and floods.
Consider this mathematics of rice too
Floods and heavy rains have been badly affected by Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Fazilka, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, Hoshiarpur and Amritsar districts of Punjab. According to the 2023 survey of APEDA, these eight districts have a 52 per cent participation in basmati production and agricultural sector in the state. During the 2023 Kharif season, Punjab produced 3.84 million tonnes of Bansmati rice in 8,12 lakh hectare area.
Till August 29, the total covered area including 32.39 lakh hectares of Bansmati and non -Bansmati rice in Punjab was 35.52 lakh hectares. This includes cotton in 1.19 lakh hectares, sugarcane in 0.95 lakh hectares and maize in 0.86 lakh hectares. However, exporters are carrying out the possibility of completing the loss in the hope of getting good price due to the failure of basmati crop in Pakistan. This can be gauged from the fact that exporters got a contract of $ 980 per tonne in 2024-25. Prior to the flood this year, exporters were contracting $ 900–1000 per tonne, which is expected to reach $ 1050 per tonne soon.
What will be the effect on wheat crop
Punjab is one of the largest wheat producing states in India. Wheat production varies every year, it was expected to produce more than 189 lakh tonnes (or 18.9 million metric tonnes) in 2025, which is more than 182 lakh tonnes in 2024 last year i.e. 2024. It was obtained by farming in an area of 35 lakh hectares, with an average yield of expected of more than 50 quintals or 60 quintals per hectare. This time the production of wheat may be delayed. The reason for this is that due to the flood, it is difficult to get ready at the right time. This will also affect the wheat crop.
