Wheat: expected bumper crop

There are glad tidings concerning availability of wheat and wheat flour — the staple food of Pakistanis. The wheat harvesting season in southern Punjab has started early and so far, the provincial food department has purchased half a million tonnes of the grain by the beginning of the second week of this month, and the average daily arrival of the commodity at the food department’s procurement centres in the region is around 100,000 tonnes. Last year, the department had bought only 13,000 tonnes by April 11.

Favourable weather conditions have helped the good harvest of the wheat crop. The rains in January and early start of summer in March have greatly helped in the expected bumper wheat crop in most parts of Punjab. Because of the high temperature in March, the crop has matured early. There was only one spell of rain in March against the predicted four-five spells and the rise in temperature in this month has resulted in early maturing of the crop. Grains too have grown to their normal big size, as the weather protected them from shrivelling. There are, however, reports that in parts of central Punjab, grains have somewhat shrivelled. Going by the harvest trend the provincial government is likely to revise its wheat procurement target upwards of the current 3.5 million tonnes.

Millers say since the new Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has emphatically mentioned wheat and wheat flour underscoring the significance of the staple food in Pakistan, they expect unhindered availability of wheat flour in the country. Those associated with the wheat flour business also emphasise that Sharif is also familiar with the workings of this business, so under his stewardship, people would get sufficient supply of wheat flour at affordable prices throughout the year.

The wheat crop this year faced the issue of fertiliser shortage all through from sowing to maturity due mainly to the international situation. Luckily, the favourable weather has more than offset the impact of the fertiliser crisis. The expected bumper wheat crop in Punjab would likely cut the food import bill of the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2022.

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