Wheat crop outlook

NEW DELHI: Persistent rain and hail storms could cut India’s wheat crop by at least 14 per cent this year, potentially forcing the world’s second-biggest producer to import the grain for the first time in a decade, an industry body said. Bad weather will shave off at least 13 million tonnes from the farm ministry’s latest forecast of 93.8 million tonnes for 2016, industry body ASSOCHAM said in a statement on Friday. Stocks at government granaries will drop to 13.4 million tonnes on April 1, 2016, when the new marketing year begins, down 22 per cent from a year earlier, ASSOCHAM estimated.