Weather report for the pulse-producing zones / April 3-10 - Pulse Pod

Australia

Rain swept through New South Wales (NSW) and parts of Queensland (QLD) at the end of March, causing damage to mung bean crops, confirms James Hunt, President of the Australian Mungbean Association.

"NSW and QLD had a lot of rain – a massive whale about. It severely damaged NSW main crop to the point where some of it won't harvest," explains Hunt. "A lot of growers held off desiccating their crop because Cyclone Alfred was touted as something that would create a lot of rain for the growing area. When it didn't happen, a lot of growers desiccated their crop, but a massive rain event came down from north a week later and that's what did the damage."

However, later seeded mung beans in central QLD have reportedly "benefited hugely" from the recent rains, as they are earlier in the growth cycle.

Hunt told the GPC that the weather in the growing regions has now "turned cooler and drier" – more suited to a strong second half of the mung bean harvest. ABARES predicts between 1-10 mm of rainfall in the QLD and NSW cropping zones over the next eight days.

Late seedings for between 30-35% of North Argentina's bean crop may put the beans at risk of damage from early frosts, says Ivan Martin of Alimar: "The seedings are late and create a risk if there are early frosts, but the climate has improved in recent days and we've been able to plant, but these are still late dates and we have to hope there are no early frosts."

"Fortunately, the rains we had have stopped and we've been able to complete most of our planting," says Martin, "I think we've been able to complete more or less everything – there may be a few areas left but I would say the majority of fields have been planted."

India should see a "normal" south-west monsoon this year, according to a joint forecast between the UK Met Office, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the El Niño-Southern oscillation has a 75% chance of turning to a neutral position in April – a good sign for the monsoon. "El Niño condition is ruled out during monsoon season this year," explained Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, IMD Director General.