- Rising prices of food items, particularly that of vegetables, have spiked retail inflation to a 68-month high of 7.59 per cent in January 2020, according to the National Statistical Office
- Extreme weather events have led to crop damages, leading to a collapse in the supply of vegetables at a time of the year when they usually flood the markets.
- Unseasonal rains and other weather events continue to disrupt the normal crop cycle and also crop yield. Since last year’s monsoon, at least 12 states have recorded longer spells of rains, spreading into the winter monsoon cycle of October-December.
- A longer summer monsoon delayed sowing and harvesting. But it also raised the hope that higher moisture level would lead to higher Rabi crop yields.
- But during the winter monsoon — the primary season for vegetable crops — unusually high rainfall days were reported from across the country.
- It caused damages to standing crops.
- According to Oxfam, there would be a 107 per cent increase in the price of processed rice by 2030 due to extreme weather events.
