LAHORE: Farmers are a happy lot after rain in almost half of the province on Monday. They expect salutary effect on the entire range of agricultural activity in Punjab.

According to them, cotton went under heat stress in the last week or so, raising their concerns about the survival of the crop.

They said fodder crop would also a big beneficiary. The largest recipient, however, would be barani (rain-fed) areas. Luckily, it rained heavy in the areas like Khushab, Narowal, Attock and parts of Jhelum.

“The only question mark is maize crop in the central parts of Punjab, where it is being harvested and shelled right now. Now, the fear is that if rains soak the grain and Eid holidays further delay the harvesting and shelling, the farmers may bear some losses,” fears Abad Khan, a maize farmer.

Farmers are already delaying harvesting because of price crash. The rate dropped from Rs5,000 per maund to Rs2,000 in the last few weeks, and farmers delayed harvesting after a social media campaign to control supplies.

For the general public, the biggest relief, however, came in the shape of temperature, which, according to the Met officials, came down by 10 degrees Celsius throughout the province.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2023