FAZAL SHER & WASIM IQBAL
ISLAMABAD: The recent rain spell along with hailstorms in various part of the country is likely to negatively impact on the standing wheat crop and damage its quality.
A senior official of Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) told Business Recorder that the ongoing rains are beneficial for overall agriculture production of major Rabi crops especially wheat but rains coupled with hailstorm adversely effect wheat crop in the country.
He said that harvesting of wheat crop has started in Sindh while in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa it will start from April 15 and continue till May 30. Rains during this time is not good for farmers, as humidity not only affects the quality of the wheat, but can also cause rust and fungus in the crop which may cause serious damage to total output.
The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) had fixed wheat production target at 27 million tons for Rabi season 2019-20 from an area of 9.2 million hectares of land.
According to final estimates shared by provincial crop reporting services with MNFS&R wheat was sown over 8.839 million hectares against a target of 9.062 million hectares which is bound to reduce the actual wheat production from the target originally set by the government at 27.03 million tons.
According to Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the current spell of rains will continue till today (Sunday). The westerly weather system entered upper parts of the country on Thursday last and is likely to persist till Sunday evening, a senior official of PMD said.
He said that rainfall, hailstorm and wind-thunderstorm would impact on the wheat crop negatively in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and upper Punjab.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rain wind-thunderstorm (with few hailstorm) with snowfall on the hills was witnessed in Chitral, Swat, Dir, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Peshawar, Charsadda, Swabi, Mardan, Kuram & Kohat.
Wind-thunderstorm rain occurred in different parts of Balochistan including Quetta, Pashin, Zhob, Chaman, Qila Saifullah and Qila Abdullah on Thursday to Friday (morning).
He said that another spell is likely to start from March 11 in KP, Punjab, Kashmir and Islamabad.
