TAXILA, May 14: Farmers in rural areas of Taxila, Hassanabdal, taking advantage of interval in freakish weather, have started harvesting and threshing wheat crop.

The recent rainy and windy spell has caused five to eight per cent pre and post-harvesting losses to wheat crop and delayed its harvesting for at least two weeks.

The rain, accompanied by thunderstorm during last week of April and first two weeks of May, has made weather pleasant but added to the worries of the farmers. The spell has damaged standing and harvested wheat crop and its sheaves.

The farmers will have to toil for days to dry harvested wheat as in wet form the crop could not be threshed.

It has been observed that almost 90 per cent of farmers in Taxila and adjoining areas have completed harvesting, but are waiting for the availability of threshers.

Moreover, various farmers have complained about the shortage of threshers provided by the government and most of them have hired the services of private parties.

Talking to this reporter, Ch Mohammad Ali, a farmer of the area said: “We will take advantage of dry spell and complete harvesting and threshing.”

Deputy District Officer (DDO), Agriculture, Ijaz Malik while talking to this reporter said that farmers should complete harvesting and threshing before the start of next rainy spell.

The current sunshine and hot conditions in the Potohar region are ideal for the wheat crop, he said adding farmers should complete at least the harvesting process in this dry spell.

He said wheat was sown over 16.5 million acres in Punjab, which produces 80 per cent of the staple food of the country. Punjab was expected to produce at least 18.7 million tons against the target of 19.2 million tons of wheat this year.

However, the untimely rain and atmospheric disturbances might leave them a little bit short of the target, he said.

Talking to this reporter Ms Shaista Yasmeen, agriculture officer, Taxila circle, said that total cultivated area of tehsil Taxila was 40,697 acres in which irrigated area is 4,876 acres  while barani (rain fed) area was 33,003 acres.

She said for irrigated area the wheat production target set by the agriculture authorities was 28 maunds per acre while for rain fed area it was 22.28 maunds per acre and, despite unfavorable weather condition, the target had been achieved.

She said since farmers had adopted scientific methods for wheat cultivation, the agriculture authorities expected to achieve the wheat production target in the area.