On April 14, hailstorm and heavy rainfall struck several districts of Maharashtra with farmers in Beed, Satara and Pune districts reportedly suffering heavy crop losses. Their rabi (winter) crops were ready for harvest but within no time got covered with a white layer of hail as big as pebbles, in the recent weather activity. 

“Yesterday a hailstorm hit our fields in the late afternoon. My crops consisting of barley, wheat, grams, watermelon and muskmelon have been destroyed,” Manoj Laxmanrao Shembde Patil, a farmer from Khalegaon in Georai tehsil — about 35 kms away from Beed district headquarters, told Gaon Connection.

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“I wonder how I would face the challenge of sustaining my family of eight as there are restrictions due to the Corona and loans or insurances are almost impossible to access. All the official work is at standstill,” he added.

This is the second time in less than a month when heavy rains and hailstorms have troubled the farmers in Marathwada, a drought-prone region in Maharashtra. On March 21, orchards of grapes, mango, and banana had suffered the maximum damage, informed Patil. 

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As per news reports, crops like onion, pomegranate and orange were also damaged in Aurangabad and other parts of Marathwada.

Farmers in Maharashtra are facing repeated disasters — successive droughts, unseasonal rainfall, hailstorm, pest attacks. “My previous crop of cotton and toor (pigeon pea) was also damaged by the unseasonal rains six months back. No bank is ready to lend loans to farmers like us and the crop insurance amount is not being released due to the Corona situation,” said 33-year-old Patil.

Patil is a member of the Shetkari Sangathan, a farmers’ outfit that aims to bring focus on issues faced by cultivators and peasants in Maharashtra. 

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There are thousands of cultivators like Patil in Beed, Pune and Satara districts of Maharashtra who have sustained critical damage to their crops due to yesterday’s hailstorms. An official estimate of damages is yet to be released.

Meanwhile, in its official forecast issued on April 14, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had warned of “Isolated rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning & gusty winds (30-40 kmph) over Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Konkan & Goa during next 48 hours & over Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh during 14th-18th April. Isolated hailstorms are also likely over Telangana and Chhattisgarh on today.”  

Maharashtra is on the course to face adverse effects of the climate change post 2033 which will compromise food production in the state and affect the food security of the country at large, a study has revealed. 

The study — Future Climate Change Scenario over Maharashtra, Western India: Implications of the Regional Climate Model for the Understanding of Agricultural Vulnerability — published in peer reviewed journal Springer Nature states that Maharashtra is very likely to experience considerably warmer conditions post 2033.

The study explained that a future increase in the annual mean temperatures in the areas with water scarcity will deteriorate the water crisis in the state. But the worsening of water scarcity in the semi-arid regions will be accompanied with a general increase in the rainfall during the monsoon season by 18 per cent to 22 per cent . “Parts of the Vidarbha sub-division and Western Ghats exhibit a significant increase in rainfall by 82–225 mm [post 2033]”, the study revealed.