Agrivarsity specialist advises farmers during a heatwave to modify their working hours

With Wednesday’s temperature scorching at 41.9°C, the state’s industrial center has been negatively impacted by the growing heat. Even though it was just 42.8 degrees Celsius today instead of 42.8 yesterday, the heat was still oppressive. The Met Department predicts that there won’t be any relief from the heat in the next few days as temperatures are predicted to surge even further northward and surpass 45 degrees Celsius.

According to Dr. PK Kingra, Head of Punjab Agricultural University’s Department of Climate Change and Agriculture Meteorology, two or three days ago, we recorded 43.8°C, which would have been Ludhiana’s warmest day of the month. Rainfall is also unlikely in the next days due to the absence of any prospect of Western disruption. In fact, an even stronger heatwave may dominate over the following four days, Kingra said.

Farmers should modify their working hours due to the severe heat from 11 am to 4 pm, as the IMD has issued a red notice for the next five to six days. They need to be at work by 11 a.m. or 4 p.m. According to Kingra, the same holds true for those who go outside throughout the day. He advised drinking enough water and eating the right food to be healthy in the face of increasing temperatures in order to avoid dehydration.

In the meanwhile, most marketplaces seemed abandoned because of the heat wave. On Wednesday, most of the roads with high pedestrian traffic were empty.