One missed irrigation cycle spells doom for wheat yield in Punjab

An irrigation round in the last week of March could have saved the wheat crop from wilting.

An irrigation round in the last week of March could have saved the wheat crop from wilting. But around mid-March,when day and night time temperatures spiked,the state had no power to irrigate the fields and there was no water in canals either. As a result,experts do not think wheat production will cross the 98 lakh tonne-mark this year. Last year,production was 111 lakh tonnes.

This fall in yield is starkly evident from the fact that on April 26,2009,Punjab mandis received around 3.19 lakh tonnes of wheat,which was a dismal 1.27 lakh tonnes this year. The peak season of wheat arrival is almost over and the entire procurement process will end by April 30. For the state that was harping on a bumper wheat crop,which over the due course changed to production as good as last year,the real figures now emerging are quite a climb down.

Punjab Farmers Commission consultant Dr P S Rangi said,The crop in Punjab was doing quite well but one irrigation cycle,which the farmers could not provide to their crop in the last week of March,has done us in. It is not even the fault of farmers. They did not have the power to run their tubewells and even the canals were dry at that time.

The grain at this stage shrivelled and then there was no going back. The farmers,too,thought the crop had matured and they harvested it. This grain is lighter in weight. The final figure for wheat arrival in Punjab will be 2.5 lakh tonens plus or minus 100 lakh tonnes, he said.

Preliminary reports suggest that districts like Sangrur,Ferozepur and Mansa are severely hit. These districts are a part of the extreme southwestern belt of Punjab and also at the tail end of the canal system of the state. Owing to their geographical situation,these districts are hotter than other districts in Punjab. Punjab Agriculture Director Balwinder Singh Sidhu said,The hot weather has played a spoilsport. I see a fall of around three per cent to five per cent in the state. Farmers should be compensated by the Centre for this loss.

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farmers
wheat