CHAKWAL: Zaffar Abbas was expecting 60 maunds (a maund is equal to 37.32kg) of mustard from his four acres of cultivated land until March 28 when heavy hailstorm coupled with torrential rain shattered his hopes of a bumper crop.

Although the plants of mustard were remained stood in the fields, the ferocious hailstorm and heavy rain which battered number of villages in Chakwal on the evening of March 28 destroyed the fruit.

“Today I got only four maunds of yield from an area which was supposed to give at least 60 maunds,” laments Zaffar Abbas. The heartbroken farmer had to pay Rs5,200 for harvesting and the mustard is being sold these days at the rate of Rs 2,500 to Rs Rs2,900 per maund in the grain market.

“I spent Rs25,000 on the preparation of land and now I got hardly a yield of Rs12,000,” he said.

Mustard is considered a cash crop in Chakwal and farmers heavily rely on it for running their household expenses. But like Zaffar scores of farmers in a number of villages in the district were left high and dry as their crop was devastated by hailstorm and rain.

The violent weather also badly affected wheat, gram and taramira (arugula) crops in the affected villages.

District Agriculture Department in its assessment report said the freakish weather had damaged 3821 acres area of wheat crop.

A copy of the report available with Dawn reveals that wheat crop has been damaged in 37 villages in the district.

Among these affected villages are Wasnal, Walana (Tehsil Kallar Kahar), Dharabi, Bhikari Kalan, Sidhar, Munday, Nain Sukh, Moolwal, Roopwal, Balkassar, Maingan, Bullhay Zer, Hastal, Dhakku, Shahpur, Bullhay Bala, Thoa Bhadur, Mureed, Chakora, Behkri (Tehsil Chakwal) Saghar, Mogla, Dhairmond, Singwala, Kot Sarang, MirJan, Peera Fathial, Chokhandi, Bilalabad, Thoa Mehram Khan, Chokera, Peera Jangla, Naka Rehan, Taragar, Mustafabad, Leti, Pira Fathial (Tehsil Talagang).

The report sent to the higher authorities in Lahore says that 950 acres of wheat have been totally damaged in some villages while 218 acres have been affected from 51 to 75pc, 1,718 acres of wheat crop has been damaged by 26 to 50pc while 935 acres of crop faced 1 to 25pc damages.

The report also says that 42 acres of area has been affected in Rawalpindi district while Attock and Jhelum luckily remained safe from the wrath of the violent hailstorm.

Mustard was cultivated in an an area of approximately 60,000 acres in Chakwal but the crop in 37 villages have been devastated more than 80pc.

“I used to get 280 maunds of mustard yield every year but this time I could hardly get 40 maunds,” laments Rizwan Haider, a farmer who suffered a heavy loss.

Due to the rains in winter mustard and wheat crops in Chakwal were looking promising but excessive rain in March invited the attack of rust disease. The major bolt came on March 28 when heavy rains accompanied by hailstorm also battered many villages of the district.

“Although crops have been damaged in some area of Chakwal however they are fine in rest of the area of Potohar region where wheat is cultivated on 1,100,000 acres,” Director Agriculture Extension of Rawalpindi Division Sajjad Haider told Dawn.

He said that locust also attacked in some areas of Jand in Attock.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2020