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Heat wave scorches India’s wheat crop, snags export plans

A farmer harvests wheat on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production. Indian farmers time their planting so that the final stage when its kernels mature and ripen coincides with India's usually cooler spring. But the heat in March, the hottest in India since records first started being kept in 1901, stunted crops. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) A woman sorts wheat harvested on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production. Climate change has made India’s heat wave hotter, said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Imperial College of London. She said that before human activities increased global temperatures, heat waves like this year's would have struck India once in about half a century. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) FILE - A laborer seals sacks filled with wheat in Gurdaspur, in the northern Indian state of Punjab on April 30, 2014. India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production. Lower yields likely mean the government will buy less wheat for its reserves this year than last. Since the pandemic struck, demand has surged under new schemes that have strained India's vast buffers against hunger. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File) FILE - Workers spray pesticide on wheat crop in Ranish Kalan village of Moga district in the northern Indian state of Punjab on March 13, 2021. India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production. Punjab is India's “grain bowl" and the government has encouraged cultivation of wheat and rice here since the 1960s. Government assessments predict lower yields this year, and Devinder Sharma, an agriculture policy expert in northern Chandigarh city. said he expected to get 25% less. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File) A farmer harvests wheat on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. India is in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave that is stunting wheat production. Wheat is very sensitive to heat, especially during the final stage when its kernels mature and ripen. Indian farmers time their planting so that this stage coincides with India's usually cooler spring. But the heat in March, the hottest in India since records first started being kept in 1901, stunted crops. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) A woman harvests wheat on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. An unusually early, record-shattering heat wave in India has reduced wheat yields, raising questions about how the country will balance its domestic needs with ambitions to increase exports and make up for shortfalls due to Russia's war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) An Indian farmer carries wheat crop harvested from a field on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. An unusually early, record-shattering heat wave in India has reduced wheat yields, raising questions about how the country will balance its domestic needs with ambitions to increase exports and make up for shortfalls due to Russia's war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) A farmer carries wheat crop after harvested on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Thursday, April 28, 2022. An unusually early, record-shattering heat wave in India has reduced wheat yields, raising questions about how the country will balance its domestic needs with ambitions to increase exports and make up for shortfalls due to Russia's war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)