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20m tonnes wheat output likely this Rabi

AMER SIAL

ISLAMABAD: The country is likely to achieve the wheat production target of 20 million tonnes this Rabi season, sources told Business Recorder.

They said that the target would be met due to the increase in wheat acreage especially in the irrigated areas of the country. However, they said the estimated 10 percent decrease in wheat production in rain-fed areas due to delayed rainfall would not affect the over-all target of 20 million tonnes.

Sources said that out of the total cultivated area of 56.7 million acres for rabi, 73 percent is under wheat cultivation. The crop cultivated in irrigated area is 83 percent while 17 percent in rain-fed areas.

As the production of wheat gained from irrigated areas is 90 percent and is estimated at 17 million tonnes for this rabi crop, while the un-irrigated area's share is only 10 percent. "We are hopeful of a bumper production as the average wheat yield from irrigated areas is 25 maunds per acre and from rain-fed areas at 13 maunds per acre, said sources.

However they said that the wheat production of NWFP is likely to be most affected due the lack of rains as 60 percent wheat cultivation area of the province is rain-fed.

Wheat is sown over 0.5 million hectares in the rain-fed areas of the province while its irrigated area is 0.35 million hectares.

The recent rainfall was beneficial for rain fed areas of Punjab and NWFP. But low rainfall was not beneficial for the crop in Dera Ismail Khan district and wheat production of the area is likely to be lower than the target, said sources.

Low rainfall in Sindh and Balochistan would not likely to affect the crop as most of the area under wheat cultivation is irrigated.

Officials of the food and agriculture ministry were hopeful that the wheat support price of Rs 300 and easy availability of inputs like pesticides and fertilizers in market would help a lot in achieving the target. The present desilting campaign of canals would ensure availability of water even if less rain occurs in the coming months due to "La Nina" phenomenon.