Hailstorms to hit wheat-growing areas, lower harvest

Hailstorms may lash the main wheat-growing regions in India, the world's second biggest producer, threatening crop prospects, the weather bureau said.Hailstorms or thundershowers are likely over northwestern states, including Punjab and Haryana, the biggest wheat growers, in the next 24 hours, the India Meteorological Department said on its web site on Tuesday. Adverse weather may dampen India's plan to harvest a record wheat crop for a second year and resume exports. Production may exceed last year's 78.4 million tonne, the agriculture ministry said.

"Hailstorms always cause some damage to crops in the key growth phase," RP Samui, head of agricultural meteorology at the weather bureau, said from Pune. "The extent of damage to wheat will depend on the severity of the hailstorms."

Wheat, India's biggest winter-sown food grain crop, was sown on 27.6 million hectare (68 million acre), up from 27.4 million hectare a year earlier, according to the agriculture ministry. The crop will be harvested in March and April. "Above normal temperature in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the past two weeks may also reduce yields," said MK Dattaraj, president, Roller Flour Millers Federation of India, in Bangalore. "Wheat output may total 77 million tonne, less than the 78.5-million target set by the agriculture ministry," he said.