ISLAMABAD: First spell of monsoon rains would bring about the positive impact on all seasonal crops, standing over thousands of hectares across the country and help in their growth and enhance their output.

The recent spell of rains, which started Monday and persisted till Thursday would be beneficial for high-delta major seasonal cash crops including rice, sugarcane as well as low-delta crops like maize, cotton, and oilseeds, said Director General Tea and High-Value Crops Research Institution of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Dr. Hamid.

Talking to the Media Thursday, he said that recent rains were a blessing in a guise as they would bring about the healthy and positive impact on all crops, fruit and vegetable orchards and would help in high germination and strong growth.

Besides, he said that the blessed showers would help in strengthening the drastically reducing groundwater level as well as boosting the water storage in mega water reservoirs as over 35 percent shortfall of water for irrigation was forecast during the current season.

Dr. Hamid called for taking appropriate measures for waterlogging from the fields in case of above normal rains to avoid any harmful impact on field farms and urged the need for taking steps on war footings basis to save the precious natural resource to boost agriculture sector of the country.

Meanwhile, Cotton Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr. Khalid Abdullah also termed the first spell of monsoon rains beneficial for cotton, which is another major cash crop of the season.

He said that water shortage in the country had affected cotton sowing in Sindh Province, where the area under crop sowing was reduced as against the set targets of the season, adding that the rains would help to boost area under crop sowing in the Province.

It may be recalled that Meteorological office has forecast another four-day spell of monsoon rains, which would be started from July 10 and expected to remain continued till July 14.