LAHORE, Nov 20: The wheat sowing drive in the Punjab has got a lacklustre response from the farmers this year as the best time for cultivation ends on Sunday and not more than 50 per cent of the target has been met so far.

The Punjab Agriculture Department has convened a meeting on Monday (today) to know how much area has been brought under wheat cultivation in the province.

Talking to Dawn, Agriculture Secretary Fayyaz Bashir conceded that wheat sowing had been delayed.

Counting the factors responsible for the delay, he said cotton crop was still in the fields in some pockets, while the Basmati rice was also harvested late, resulting in this situation.

“But, the department is trying hard to convince the farmers that they must sow wheat within the month of November, or at least by the first week of December,” he said. Hopefully, the situation would improve in the next two weeks, he said.

The farmers, however, refused to share the official optimism. They think it would be hard for the province to meet the acreage and yield targets now. Even if these targets are met, the food requirements of the country will be hard to meet as the population had increased considerably since these targets were set last time, they say.

Kissan Board Pakistan senior vice-president Nisar Ahmad says the stagnant per acre yield target and lack of interest on farmers’ part can hinder the achievement of wheat targets.

He says during the last many years, Inqalab-91 (wheat variety) has been covering over 70 per cent of the acreage. Progressively, this variety has lost its promise and now its output has gone low. On the other hand, he says, the government’s research facilities have not been able to produce any new wheat variety.

Similarly, he says, the government has been fixing acreage target of around 20 million acres for the last few years. It cannot do much about the acreage because of limited availability of land. The yield targets of around 21 million tons have been achieved for the last few years. Whereas, food requirements of the country have now gone up to 22.5 to 23 million tons because of the rising population as around 3.5 million new souls are added every year, naturally putting pressure on food resources.

In addition to these long-term factors, says Ibrahim Mughal of the KBP, there are many other reasons, making the official targets hard to get.

He says the farmers need to be motivated aggressively. Last year, till November 20, the federal government had conducted four big seminars to motivate the growers, he said and added that the farmers bodies were involved in the process and the early sowing campaign gained some kind of momentum. This time, he said, no such effort was made by the provincial and federal governments.

Besides, he said, the wheat support price of Rs415 was also not an incentive big enough to attract the farmers towards early sowing.

The fertilizer prices are also a problem. The DAP is reportedly being sold up to Rs1,200 per bag, against the official price of Rs950, in some areas of the province.

As a result, the total sowing so far has not gone beyond 50 per cent against, as per official claim, 76 per cent of the last year till the corresponding deadline.

The officials could claim higher figure as no one go out and count acres. But the fact remains that sowing has still not picked up in the province.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has formally launched its Grow-More-Wheat campaign and assured the farmers of the required water supply for the same.

Punjab Agriculture Minister Arshad Khan Lodhi on Sunday urged the growers to complete sowing before November 30 for maximum production.

He said the irrigation department with the consultation of agriculture department had provided necessary canal water for wheat sowing.

He suggested the wheat cultivators, keeping in view the expert opinion, should prefer early sowing because late sowing did not help in getting good production.

He also directed the extension wing of agriculture department to remain in the field to provide assistance to the growers at this stage.

The minister also asked the wheat growers to select the department’s recommended varieties and make proper use of fertilizers. He said weedicide use ensured reasonable increase in the production.