LAHORE: The Growers Survey of Punjab, an exercise carried out by the Crop Reporting Service, predicts that the province would end up at almost identical wheat acreage, as it had last year, with a slight increase of 0.2 per cent.

Last year, Punjab had sown wheat on 16.210 million acres, and this year it might end up at 16.249m acres. The rain-fed (barani) areas might see one per cent increase in areas: from 1.491m acres to 1.511m acres.

Out of expected 16.249m acres, the Punjab had sown 8.914m acres – around 55pc of the area – by Nov 15, when the survey completed. Last year, the province had achieved 28pc of sowing by the same date. In rain-fed areas, the sowing figure had hit 86pc, with 1.3m acres already sown.

The Punjab government had set a target of cultivating wheat on 16.5m acres this year, with a production target of 21 million metric tonne– from per acre production target of 31.82 maunds. In order to achieve the target, the provincial government is providing free seeds of selected varieties of wheat. In some other areas, 900,000 bags of certified seeds of selected varieties are being provided at Rs1,200 per bag and herbicides subsidy. Apart from this, the support price of wheat was increased up to Rs3,000 per 40 kg before the sowing of wheat so that the cultivation can be made profitable for the farmers.

Abad Khan, a farmer from southern Punjab, thinks this year is going to be slightly below normal for the crop. “The reasons are multiple. Weather, which was hot by wheat germination standards, kept the farmers confused and so were fluctuating rates of fertilisers.

The price confusion (Sindh setting it at Rs4,000 per maund and Punjab Rs3,000) also contributed. Then local problems like areas falling on the Chashma Right Bank canal, which was washed away many miles in the DG Khan area made the sowing impossible. The government had set Nov 15 deadline for the repair, but it is still going on and may take another fortnight or so. Tractor-driven tubewells in Taunsa area is selling at totally unaffordable Rs1,800 per hour.

All these factors would hit the crop one way or the other,” he fears, adding that next season would be tough for urban consumers as well.

Sindh crop arrives a month earlier than the Punjab’s. Sindh would buy, whatever meagre amount, at Rs4,000 per maund and set the market at a higher rate. By the time, the Punjab crop arrives, the market would be set at higher price biting urban dwellers badly.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2022