LAHORE, Dec 3: While the government is hoping for high produce from the current cultivation of wheat after raising the price of wheat by Rs50 per 40 kg bag, negative factors are adding up to undermine the crop.

A substantial percentage of all the crops that wheat replaces are confronted with problems in following their usual schedule for harvesting for different reasons with the result that yield from the wheat crop would be reduced because of delayed sowing. Wheat sowing after November 20 is considered detrimental to yield by experts.

Wheat is sown on cotton, rice and sugarcane fields. It has not been assessed as yet that how much area is still under crops of the last season but many farmers in the cotton, rice and cane regimes have extended their usual harvesting period either because of external pressures or due to the income potential of their crops.

Cotton picking has undergone widespread pest attack that forced farmers to try to minimize their losses by obtaining some yield from second and third picking. An additional reason for waiting for these pickings has been the high price of phutti in the market.

Although the increase in the wheat price is an incentive, some farmers feel that the wheat would earn Rs350 for them from 40 kg, but the same quantity of cotton would fetch Rs1,500. They are consequently taking their chance of additional earning instead of relying on wheat for enhancing their income.

Price is not involved in rice harvesting but non-availability of rice harvesters has become a factor in clearing rice fields and sowing wheat in rice lands. Some farmers in the rice belt of Punjab told Dawn that harvesters were hard to come by and they have no option but to wait for their turn.

Cane harvesting has been delayed by the sugar miller’s refusal to undertake crushing unless their problems were resolved and their stocks were purchased by the government. They started crushing on November 30 in many cases, delaying harvesting of the crop and consequently disturbing the correct sowing schedule for wheat cultivation.

Wheat is sown on an area of about 20 million acre in Pakistan and the annual local consumption of the commodity is worked out at about 19 million tons. The government has fixed a target of 20 million tons for Rabi crop in the hope that imports would not be needed to meet the domestic bill.

However, the delayed announcement for raising the support price of wheat plus factors delaying harvesting of some of the standing crops and subsequent delay in wheat cultivation has placed a question mark against the government’s expectations.