‘Changing monsoon altering crop cycles’

NEW DELHI: June, the first of the four-month monsoon season, is becoming drier and hotter, delaying sowing of kharif or summer crops by two to three weeks and, as a result, pushing winter-planted wheat into periods of heat stress, official data shows. This in turn tends to delay and shorten the time available for sowing the winter staple wheat, exposing the crop to damaging early summer heat waves, when it matures. A spill-over of the monsoon into the third week of October delayed sowing of wheat in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by up to three weeks, official data shows. Hot early summers crimped India’s wheat output in 2022 and 2023, sending federally held stocks to a 16-year low this year, as prices soared.