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| April 17, 2003 | Thursday | Safar 14, 1424 |
Rains raise hopes of better Frontier harvests
PESHAWAR, April 16: The recent rains in the province have removed the affects of drought prevailing for the last few years, and raised hopes among agriculturists of better production of rabi crop in the current season.
“The agriculturists are expecting a better yield of the crop, including that of wheat due to sufficient rains received in the province,” said Gul Nawaz Khattak, Director of the Agriculture Information Centre.
“Even this year the production of rabi crop would be more than the target set at the time of sowing,” he added.
After a gap of 10 to 12 years, the province had received suitable rains with proper interval, Mr Khattak said, and added that such rains were received in 1997-98.
It merits mention here that for the last few years drought-like conditions prevailed throughout the country in general and in the NWFP and Balochistan in particular.
The annual yield of rabi and kharif crops was unsatisfactory and less than the target, creating problems for the farmers and agriculturists.
In 1999-2000, when the drought was very severe, the overall agriculture production loss in the province was estimated up to 20 to 25 per cent.
In the following year, drought affects persisted in the province and except for onion, vegetables and fruits, the production of all other crops showed decrease.
Keeping in view the prolonged persistence of drought in the province, the agriculturists had started advising farmers to cultivate other crops which require less water. Similarly, other techniques like dripping for irrigation of fields were suggested against free flow of water.
Projects like Drought Relief Emergency Programme (Dera) and Barani Area Development Project were also launched to fend off affects of drought and save the farming community from persistent financial loss.
Giving details about the expected production of rabi crop in current year, Mr Khattak said wheat crop had been cultivated on an area of 800,000 hectares and its production was expected up to 1.1 million tons, exceeding the target of one million tons.
Last year’s production of wheat crop was 800,000 tons which was less than the target of one million tons.
Similarly, the gram crop, which is also a cash crop, is cultivated on 65,000 hectares land and its production is also expected to be more than the target of 25,000 tons.
The favourable climatic change would also have positive effects on fruits production which include orange, apple, citrus.—APP
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