While farmers and traders fear that the rains would hurt grain quality and shrink output, govt agencies maintain there is no major impact on the crop so far.GP Singh, Director of the Karnal-based Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research said the rains in Punjab and Haryana are ‘scanty and scattered’ and will not affect the crop. In fact, we are heading for a record year in wheat as the crop has been good in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, where harvest has already commenced. Rainfall at this time is not at all welcome, mainly for the wheat crop as it will downgrade the quality. Wheat harvested and still lying in the fields will get affected. Also, the standing crop in isolated places that have witnessed heavy rains will get affected. However, it would be difficult to quantify the losses at this time. Veena Sharma, Secretary, Roller Flour Millers Association of India, said the rains have a bad impact on the crop affecting both quality and the crop size. We fear that the crop size would come down to a great extent. The rains might distort wheat quality and flour millers may require more quality wheat for their blending needs. It will accentuate the need to have more imports to the tune of 2-2.5 million tonnes this year,” said Amit Bharadwaj, CEO of Level A Commodities.