Rains may enhance wheat production

ISLAMABAD: After a long dry spell, the current rains are expected to bring a positive effect on crops, particularly wheat, which has been cultivated on 8.8 million hectares.

According to the Food and Agriculture Commissioner, Dr Shakeel Khan, the current spell of rains would help enhance crop output after wheat production declined 3.5 per cent due to last year’s floods.

In Punjab, wheat has been cultivated on 6.68 million hectares, in Sindh 1.08 million hectares, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 0.73 million hectares and in Balochistan 0.32 million hectares.

Khan asked farmers to regularly monitor their crops and use proper pesticides to boost output and make the country self-sufficient in food production.

The scattered rains in areas of Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have brought hope for farmers. The Met office in Islamabad has forecast further rains in most parts of the country, which will also boost production of pulses, vegetables, oilseeds and other crops that require extensive water supply at this stage, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.