Wheat sowing gains momentum in Punjab amid govt support

LAHORE: Wheat sowing has gained momentum in Punjab despite the challenge of rising input cost as the provincial government deputed thousands of students to create awareness among farmers under a robust official outreach drive.

According to official wheat survery-1 2021-22, sowing is expected to surpass target of 16.670 million acres by about one percent, bringing 16.783 million acres under the crop in the province during the ongoing planting season.

So far, wheat sowing has been carried out on 3.2 million acres, which was about 20 percent of the total target, showing signs of swift early plantation in the province.

A senior official of the Punjab Agriculture Department said farmers were keen to cultivate the crop on greater area during the optimal period, which was supported by positive sentiment of wheat trade coupled with timely harvesting of paddy crop.

Wheat plantation in central Punjab was happening at a good pace with favourable day and time temperature. The official, who was on a field visit on Saturday, said he saw healthy germination on fairly large areas in Sheikhupura district, which was a good omen for harvesting a good crop.

He estimated that the pace of wheat sowing was greater than up to 10 percent if compared with last year’s plantation trend. “It is a very encouraging development and optimal sowing is expected,” he observed.

Farmers are aware of record wheat price in the international market and are also expecting better return in the domestic market.

Talking about the downside of wheat plantation in the current season, the official admitted that high cost of production in the backdrop of abnormally high prices of fertiliser, especially DAP, water shortage, and delay in sugarcane sowing would be major challenges for the farmers. High oilseed prices make it a prefect competing crop that would be another challenge, as many farmers would see it as a better option compared to wheat, the official warned.

“I personally feel that achieving wheat sowing target would be a challenge in the province.” On vertical growth, he opined, “high cost of inputs may hinder efforts of increasing per acre yield”.

Nevertheless, Agriculture Department has initiated a robust campaign to encourage farmers to grow wheat on a larger area. For the first time, thousands of students of agriculture universities have been engaged in this connection.

The idea to launch a massive awareness campaign was floated by the department under Prime Minister's Agricultural Emergency Programme, which was practically backed by Vice Chancellor University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan (SI).

Dr Anas Sarwar Qureshi, Pro Vice Chancellor, UAF told this scribe that five divisions of the province Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sahiwal were being targeted initially under the umbrella of this programme. It is a nine-day training for farmers in which 20,000 students along with faculty members have been deputed to serve the vision of being self-sufficient in wheat production.

A number of activities would be organized eg, road shows, training workshops, meetings with wheat growers etc. In this connection, Dr Sher Mohammad Sherawat, of Agriculture Extension along with faculty members Dr Ayesha Khatoon and Engr Rabia Anam visited multiple centres of District Lahore on Saturday, including Darogwala (village Minhala), Ferozwala (village Dandi) and Muredkay (village Kot Syeda).

Road shows and growers meetings were organised in which farmers were informed about wheat production technologies. Print material was also distributed among farmers and other participants.

Earlier, spearheaded by provincial minister for agriculture, the Agriculture Department initiated an extensive drive for large increments in wheat sowing area. The main aim of this mega campaign was to reach every farmer beyond the approved action plan for the agriculture extension staff with the active involvement of universities. Fertiliser sector support has also been extended for organising as many as 29 mega gatherings across the province.

As part of the ongoing drive, Punjab Minister for Agriculture Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi said efforts were being made to ensure provision of agriculture inputs to farmers at affordable rates.

He said that the federal government has decided that no tax would be levied on agricultural inputs. He claimed that all fertilisers were available in abundance for the need of Rabi crops 2021-22.

He made it clear that dealers involved in illicit profit and black marketing would be brought to justice.

Price of a bag of urea in the international market was Rs10,000, whereas in Pakistan a bag of urea remains at Rs1,800. In view of the importance of phosphorus fertilisers, a subsidy of Rs1,000/bag was being given on DAP, while a farmer could buy a maximum of 20 bags of DAP on subsidy rate, he added.