LAHORE, Jan 1: Widespread rains in Punjab and Sindh for two days at the end of 2004 have given a badly needed boost to the wheat crop and given it either first irrigation or provided soaking irrigation in fields where farmers had failed to cultivate the crop because of acute shortage of water.

Many farmers in the irrigated areas were at a loss about their first watering for wheat crop that was seriously threatened by water shortage placed at frightening 48 per cent, canals set for annual closure and water reservoirs down to virtually their last drops because of a prolonged dry stretch and continuously rising sedimentation.

While the Punjab government has been claiming to have achieved target for wheat sowing, the assertion was to be taken with a strong dose of salt because many cotton growers were trying to extract the maximum from a bumper crop and delaying wheat sowing. Some farmers had refrained from sowing because there wasn't sufficient water for soaking fields for wheat cultivation.

AS upper regions of Sindh follow the same pattern as the cotton belt of southern Punjab, most of its farmers were confronted with a similar situation while farmers in the lower parts of the province that are ahead in their cultivation and harvesting cycle are likely to have been provided second irrigation by rains.

With the problem of water scarcity besetting many areas in the cotton belts of upper Sindh and southern Punjab, wheat had not replaced cotton at many points because of a parched state of land and no hope of a change for farmers depending entirely on irrigation supplies.

Some farmers in these areas had resorted to the use of tubewells but as small farmers possessed neither the facility of tubewells nor had resources to pay for high cost of running them the agriculture landscape in Punjab was presenting a mixed view of wheat crop in an early stage and fields left unattended.

Meanwhile tube well owning farmers have been accorded financial relief by rain as they do not have to harness tubewells to irrigate the crop.

Asked about the impact of rains, Dr Mohammad Shafique, a water sector expert and himself a practising farmer, told Dawn that the rains were indeed a blessing and the fact that they did not come in a downpour but fell smoothly would feed the ideal nourishment to the crop. The new year has started with excellent news for Pakistan's agriculture, he said.

He said that they would benefit both the cotton belt and upper regions of Punjab and should help farmers in rain-fed areas to go for delayed sowing of wheat. While early sowing is certainly the best for wheat, farmers often cultivate wheat in early January because of delayed harvesting of cotton.

Recorded rainfall ranged from 20 millimetres to 35-40 mm in various parts of Punjab and reports inform that usually dry regions like Cholistan had also received a fair share of nature's bounty for the wheat crop.

Nawab Bhatti, former head of the information wing of Punjab's Department of Agriculture, viewed rains as a 'blessing' for wheat and felt that they would not only sustain wheat but also benefit other crops like potato, grams and fruit orchards across Punjab.

Another important thing about the rains, he said, was that they would be instrumental in clearing frost from fields and generally make conditions more conducive for the growth in the agriculture sector while their importance for wheat cannot be overstressed.