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Thursday, May 07, 2009
By Aftab Maken
ISLAMABAD: Wheat production is expected to be around 25.7 million tonnes crossing government estimates of 23.3 million tonnes.
The increase in wheat out put estimates is being attributed to rise in both the area under wheat cultivation and per acre yield, reveals a survey on Wednesday.
The area under wheat cultivation was up by 9.8 per cent against the last season while per acre yield increased by 19 per cent over last year.
The increase in Guaranteed Minimum Price (GMP) of Rs950 per 40 kg for wheat encouraged growers to enhance wheat production, says the joint survey of Punjab Lok Sujag and South Asia Partnership-Pakistan.
The survey interviewed 956 farmers from 168 villages of 14 districts, which contribute half of the wheat production in Punjab.
The survey also pinpointed the massive production has become an insurmountable challenge for the government’s wheat procurement departments that now find themselves over stressed with the burden of buying the produce.
The smaller as well as large farmers during the on-going harvesting season in Punjab have witnessed an average increase in production of 30.6 per cent when compared with the corresponding period of last season, the survey added.
Only two of the survey districts, Narowal and Toba Tek Singh, showed a negative trend as area under wheat reduced here. Narowal also had to face a decline in yield as weather in the area has not been favourable resulting in an overall decline in production.
Toba however compensated the reduction in the area by better yield to produce more wheat than the previous year, the survey highlighted.
In contrast many other districts have thrived on the back of high yield alone. Attock increased area under wheat by only 1.8 percent, yet a high increase of 28 percent in yield resulted in increased production.
Lodhran surpassed all other districts in rise in yield as the per acre wheat production in the district rose by a hefty 57.6 percent, it said.
The survey further said that rise in wheat production in Okara was mainly contributed by a big increase in area under wheat. Okara and adjoining areas is the hub of potato production that failed to fetch a good price in the previous seasons. This coupled with the ensured high price for wheat wooed a number of farmers to replace potato with wheat. An additional rise in yield resulted in the big increase of 52 percent in wheat production in Okara.
Small farmers have been afraid that it might become difficult for them to buy wheat for home consumption at high rates at any point in the coming year. While medium and large farmers realised that wheat cultivation has become a profitable activity for the first time ever. They abandoned other cash crops performing poorly at the market and opted to grow wheat, the survey concluded.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
