The governments, both federal and provincial, seem concerned about herbicide needs of the wheat crop and have at least gone through motions for their proper availability to farmers. This is a positive step but the use of herbicides has more to it than their availability.

The importance of applying herbicides to the wheat crop cannot be overemphasized but ground conditions inform of limited use by a minority of growers. The reason is quite simple. While agriculture departments run campaigns advising farmers to apply it to the crop, a majority of the tillers seems unaware of their impact on the yield and indeed of most other benefits to the crop.

According to rough estimates of pesticide companies, more of guesstimates than reliable information gathered with empirical research, only about 15 percent of wheat growers treat their crops with herbicides to remove weeds.

This is rather strange as herbicides application is not very costly, the total bill per acre remaining Rs. 600 to Rs. 700 or even less.

Landowners using it are mostly from the progressive and educated segment of the farming community; they are not only conscious of the fact that herbicides application is not just vital for the crop far eliminating weeds but also because of their contribution towards enhancing output.

However, the use of herbicides among small farmers, if any, is quite restricted; they tackle the problem with their hands. They are the losers.

The fertilizer they apply to the crop nourishes weeds as much as plants. Fertilizer cannot distinguish between wheat plants and weeds as its nutritive value is not plant specific.

Thus the effort and the expense not only often remain short of required and desired because of population of weeds in wheat field; the farmer’s sweat and toil also ends up rendering a negative role.

It is the same with regard to water. The commodity is turning scarcer by the day; weeds consume it no less than crops. Weeds also occupy space and become instrumental in stunting the growth of crops.

Weeds inflict multiple damage on crops. During harvesting, seeds of weeds often get mixed with wheat and undermine the quality of the produce. That brings down the price of the commodity in the market.

They thus doubly suffer, first during the growth of the crop and later during its marketing. These are some of the problems that need to be resolved if the produce from wheat growers is to be enhanced.

According to experts, herbicides have the capacity to double the crops yield. The statistics for enhancement of yield are not in mathematical terms but represent relative assessment.

Still, agriculture sector scientists are quite clear about the potential of herbicides to improve yields but they caution against their indiscriminate application, that is, without working out requirements of specific fields because the quantity and type of weeds is not uniform in every field.

Unfortunately, the governments stress on the use of herbicides is not supplemented at the present stage by any scientific evaluation of requirements of fields.

The public sector lacks professional resources to the extent they are essential for dealing with an issue like field to field survey. Nor should one expect the government to handle such problems.

Nevertheless, a breakthrough in enhancing yields-wheat in this case, would be difficult, indeed impossible without resolving basic questions.

The farmer’s focus is the income he receives from land. This is natural but he tends to gauges his success by comparing the state of crop in his land with neighboring fields and measuring his performance by the yardstick of earnings.

He would be inclined to applying fertilizers and herbicides and follow methods adopted by neighbors if they are earning more than him.

The farmer also likes to compare his latest crop with the previous years output. The efficacy of inputs and techniques is thus to be demonstrated to him.

Provincial departments try to do that by establishing demonstration fields. The location of the land has consequently to be such that the largest possible number of farmers is exposed to it.

Tremendous results have been obtained for promoting laser leveling, zero tillage and bed planting by finding vintage points for underlining the role of conservation technologies. The same can be done for educating and ecnouraging farmers for herbicides treatment.

Provincial agriculture departments organize such demonstrations but they have not specifically focused on herbicides so far. And, strictly speaking, the condition of many of the demonstration plots can be called inspiring by any stretch of imagination.

Moreover, lands of affluent farmers and big landowners are often used for demonstration purposes. That leaves small farmers cold.

Demonstration plots should be selected very carefully from the viewpoint of their accessibioity to lowly placed farmers in ouir class ridden society to attract the maximum number of growers.

The ideal arrangement would be a network of laboratories for testing conditions obtaining in different fields. That is easier said than done.

Governments lack both rsources and will. Expertise is also limited in the government because the public sector has no system for rewarding hard work and talent.

But the sectors limitations can be overcome by striking a partnership with the private sector. It is in the interest of pesticides companies to educate farmers about benefits of herbicides treatment and application of pesticides on a measured basis. These companies can provide know-how, fund and trained manpowers.

The two can join hands to help the agriculture sector enhance yields, particularly with regard to food security, not that crops providing raw material for export-oriented industries would not gain.

A comprehensive policy needs to be drawn for bringing farmers to modern times. This should include a pooling of resources besides, in the first instance, encouraging formulation of herbicides and later supporting the setting up of plants for local production of pesticides and herbicides by offering incentives to entrepreneurs.

Yields can be substantially enhanced if not doubled if necessary measures are adopted for achieving this end.

Otherwise, no special policy or instructions are needed for ensuring sufficient availability of herbicides because the segment of the farming community that uses them has both knowledge and resources to look after its crops. It can tie up requirements with pesticide firms directly.

The authorities need not worry about 15 percent that comprises herbicides users in preference over the rest.

The majority of farmers can do better if the administration ensures on time and sufficient availability of fertilizers, harvesters, thrashers, zero tillage, laser levelers and bed and furrow planting machinery for community use.

As for herbicides, they feature nowhere in the priorities of majority farmers at this point in time.