ISLAMABAD: The prevailing dry weather in the country may negatively impact on sowing of wheat crop 2020-21 mainly in rain-fed (barani) areas of the country.
Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) weather outlook for November, 2020, in which farmers begin sowing wheat, is of the driest month of the year, with an average rainfall of about 0.6mm/day while climatology of maximum daily rainfall is around 1mm/day and 10 mm/month respectively.
Due to dry whether there will be less availability of soil moisture which can delay sowing of wheat crop especially in the rain-fed areas, PMD further stated, adding that the amount of rainfall will be below normal in agricultural plains of all the provinces during the month of November and December.
A senior official of Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) said that Indus River System Authority (ISRA) has also anticipated 10 percent shortfall of water during Rabi season 2020-21.
About the impact of dry weather on wheat sowing, he said that the current weather will delay sowing of wheat crop only in rain-fed areas of the country but not affect its sowing in irrigated areas as sufficient quantity of water was available in country’s reservoirs. Wheat production from rain fed areas was about 10 percent, he said.
However, he said that late sowing varieties of wheat will minimize the impact of dry weather. The sowing of wheat crop completes in November and December but late sowing varieties can also be grown in January, he said.
Another official said that rain-fed areas of the Potohar region are totally dependent on rains for both Rabi and Kharif crops. These areas have dried up and are in dire need of rainfall, he said.
The Federal Committee Agriculture (FCA) fixed wheat production target at 26.78 million tons for Rabi season 2020-2021 from an area of 9.16 million hectares of land out of which Punjab’s target is 20 million tons, Sindh, 3.900 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.6 million tons, and Balochistan will produce 1.2 million tons.
The committee also fixed production targets for other Rabi crops including grams at 0.560 million tons from an area of 0.988 million hectares, 8.9 thousand tons lentil from an area of 17.1 thousand hectares, 4.8 million tons of potatoes from an area of 0.1912 million hectares, 2.22 million tons of onions from an area of 0.165 million hectares, and 0.625 million tons of tomatoes from an area of 52000 hectares.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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