LAHORE: Despite many negative factors throughout the Rabi season, wheat crop fared better this year as compared to the last year if the data by the Punjab Crop Reporting Service is anything to go by.

The Rabi season had seen fertilisr crisis, water shortages and unsupportive weather with heavy rains and hailstorms but overall lower than normal rainfall. The land under wheat crop had also dropped by around 0.5m acre in the province this season.

But the crop reporting service data reveals that by mid-April when 37.8pc of the crop has been harvested, the average per acre yield stands at 32.49 maunds against 31.34 maunds last year. The harvesting rate is 17.1pc higher than the previous year because of unusually higher temperatures by the end of March that helped grain mature earlier.

Multan division is leading other regions in per acre yield with 36.19 maunds closely, followed by Sahiwal division with 36.15 maunds and Bahawalpur division with 36.03 maunds.

The per acre yield in Lahore division has been reported at 33.39 maunds, Dera Ghazi Khan 32.50 maunds, Faisalabad 31.44, Sargodha 25.64 and Rawalpindi 23.76 maunds per acre.

A food department official says that the improvement in yield has been witnessed in south Punjab where the wheat crop matured before the unusual rise in the mercury by the end of March and early-April and the grain did not face shriveling.

As maturing and thus harvesting of the crop in central Punjab is late and temperature by the time has reached close to 40 degree Celsius, the grain has shrunk, which would bring the average yield down, he adds.

The Punjab government was expecting 20.36 million tonne overall wheat production by April 14 but it revised the figure to 20 million tonnes on Monday.

Last year, Punjab had produced 20.9 million tonnes of grain.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2022