PESHAWR: The ongoing rain spell in the central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa districts has dashed the wheat growers’ hope for a better harvest this season as the standing crop has started showing signs of deterioration.

According to wheat growers from Nowshera, Mardan and Swabi districts, the crop has started developing black stains due to over-irrigation as a result of the intermittent downpour during the past two weeks.

“The standing crop needs sunshine to get its spike developed,” said Ismail Khan, president of Anjuman-i-Kashtkaran (association of farmers), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said rainwater had benefitted tobacco cultivation, but wheat growers, particularly, in the irrigated areas had started fearing for the standing crop.

Abdul Samad Saafi, general secretary of Kissan Board, Nowshera district, said the persistent rainy weather and loss of sunshine had started undermining the standing crop with which the farmers’ hope for meeting a breakeven point at the end of the cropping season had been waning.

He said one-after-another cloudy day during the past two weeks had impaired the standing crop to get matured, hampering the development of its spike.

“In several parts of Nowshera district, the growers have reported that the standing crop has blackened because the plant roots have suffered from the sub-soil wetness,” said Mr Saafi.

He said continued rains in this part of the cropping season had caused water accumulation on the surface that had aggravated the crop growth in the absence of sunshine. “The standing crop badly needs warmer weather to dry the surface awash with rainwater,” said the Kissan Board’s leader.

However, the Swabi district wheat growers have a double jeopardy: apart from suffering slow development, the standing wheat crop has also come under a viral attack.

“Those farmers who sowed Inqilab-91 variety of wheat their crop has developed rust, causing holes in the plants,” said Khalid Khan, president of Kissan Board, Swabi district.

He said approximately 10 per cent to 15 per cent area under wheat in the district has come under the rust attack, succumbing the growers to expect anything at the end of the cropping season.

“They will not even get fodder for their cattle because the viral disease does not leave it fit even for animal consumption,” said Mr Khan.

He said the problem was of the farmers’ own making because the directorate of agriculture extension, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had banned the sale-purchase of Inqalab-91 wheat seeds in the province.

However, only those farmers who have reproduced the crop year after year and put aside part of the harvest to get seeds had suffered this year.

Usually, farmers, said Mr Khan, mixed a specific quantity of milk in the irrigation water to protect the crop from being attacked by the viral disease. “But this time the traditional technique has not helped them much because of too many rains,” said Mr Khan.

His Kissan Board colleague from Nowshera, however, has a different explanation for the fungus attack.

According to Samd Saafi, the wheat plants had been diseased only in those fields where excessive pesticides were sprayed to protect tobacco crop in the previous seasons.

“Even farm labours have suffered from skin diseases because of the substandard pesticides’ spray to protect tobacco crop,” said Mr Saafi.

Mr Khan, however, said hundreds of small wheat growers would not get anything of the wheat crop this season because of the disease.

The crop has been cultivated on 47,100 hectares in Swabi district this season, including 29,700 irrigated hectares and the remaining crop area categorised as un-irrigated area, according to the provincial agriculture statistics’ department’s data.

Wheat growers from southern Dera Ismail Khan district, when contacted, said the crop had benefited from the ongoing rains, but further rains would not bode well for the crop.

“We received rains quite late – only a couple of days ago – which has benefitted the standing crop, but more rains would be counterproductive,” said Mohammad Iqbal Khan, a wheat grower from Gandi Omer Khan, DI Khan.