LAHORE, May 23: The Kissan Board Pakistan on Friday claimed that wheat yield in Punjab was 14.5 million ton rather than the officially-estimated 15.4 million ton.

The board’s secretary-general, Ibrahim Mughal, while talking to Dawn claimed that the KBP figures were based on calculations made by its district heads who were trained farmers. The district presidents have mechanisms in place to make such calculations, he claimed.

The KBP has been claiming that officials figures are exaggerated and designed to please those in power. The officials who made tall claims of 16.6 million ton in March saw their estimates come down to 15.4 in May. This points to inability or inefficiency on the part of the Crop Reporting Centre of the Punjab government, he added.

Mr Mughal claimed that the average yield had also gone down from 25 maunds per acre in 1997-98 to 23.5 maunds only. He attributed the drop in yield to a drop in acreage this year. Wheat was sown on only 15 million acres — 50,000 acres less than last year. It was largely because sugarcane-crushing started late and farmers could not clear their fields in time for sowing wheat.

There was shortage of canal water and even timely rains could not compensate for the earlier damage. There was no attempt by the Agriculture Department to promote a balanced use of fertilisers and introduce new technology, he alleged.

The low per-acre yield would cost the economy and the farmers Rs11 billion, and the government must move now to check the fault in its system and avoid the debacle in future, Mr Mughal said.

The government’s earlier optimistic estimates forced the farmers into selling the crop early for fear of a price crash later on. However, middlemen were now minting money because of the reduced crop size, he said.

The KBP credited the food department and the chief minister with living up to their promise of price stability and procurement till the last grain, but also demanded an inquiry into the low yield when other countries in the region, China and India, got 42 to 47 maunds per acre despite similar weather conditions.

The KBP secretary-general also demanded due role for farmers bodies in planning and execution of new strategies because they were the ones knowing the ground realities.