LAHORE: Punjab expects a bumper wheat crop this season even though the provincial government has failed to meet its targets for the provision of subsidised seed, fertiliser and planters to the growers due to paucity of funds.

A senior official of the Punjab Agri­culture Department expected the province to reap a bumper crop this year, “provided the weather conditions remain favorable as all other indicators are positive”.

The official told Dawn that the area under the wheat crop has gone up from 16.2 million acres last year to 16.5m acres this year, while 90 per cent of the sowing target had been achieved in the early (and most suitable) season.

He attributed the increase in acreage and rising attraction of wheat cultivation to the failure of the last cotton crop. “Poor lint output due to pest attacks and other related reasons made the farmers free up their lands from cotton and use it instead for early wheat sowing in a bid to get a better yield,” he explained. Increase in minimum wheat support price by the government, from Rs1,400 to Rs1,650 per 40kg, when the sowing season had set in served as an added incentive to the growers to focus on the grain, he added.

Weather conditions also are favourable so far as the recent heavy rain did not affect the crop.

Sources in the provincial agriculture department said that despite last year’s wheat shortage crisis, the government did not allocate sufficient funds to meet the targets set for maximising the grain output.

They said that out of the 1.2 million seed bags target set by the department, only 300,000 bags of certified seed were provided to the growers at subsidised rate as only a part of the promised funds was released by the government.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2021