The Hindu Business Line : Weather promises to help raise wheat output

"Currently, temperature shoots up for a few hours in the day and at night, it is cool. If the temperature continues to be lower this month and in March, we will have a better yield," said Dr B. Mishra, Project Director, Directorate of Wheat Research in Karnal, Haryana.

"The wheat crop is progressing well and there have been no report of any pest or disease attacking the crop," he said over phone. The Directorate of Wheat Research is an arm of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

During 2004 and 2005, adverse weather affected wheat production. In 2004, the setting in of early summer affected the yield, while last year, the late setting in of winter had an effect on the crop. As a result, wheat production slid to 72 million tonnes both the years. Wheat production has been a bit dormant after a record harvest of 76.7 million tonnes in 2000.

The Food and Agriculture Ministry, on its part, has projected the crop to be 75.5 million tonnes this year. Based on the good crop, it has also targeted to procure 16.2 million tonnes for buffer stocks from which allocation will be made for the public distribution system and other Union Government programmes.

"I don't think we will face the situation we faced the last few years, if the weather continues to be good," Dr Mishra said. "I think we will have a better yield and a production above 74 million tonnes. Also, we have to take note of the fact that the area under wheat has increased this year," he said.

As on January 30, wheat coverage increased to 265.08 lakh hectares (lh) against 261.47 lh during the corresponding period a year ago. Barring Madhya Pradesh, where there is an over six lh decline in coverage, there has been a rise in wheat sowing in Maharashtra (3 lh), Uttar Pradesh (1.3 lh), Gujarat (1.6 lh) and Punjab (80,000 ha) besides other States.

Asked about lack of rainfall in some of the wheat-growing areas, he said it was a problem in regions such as Madhya Pradesh. "These areas are rain-fed and the wheat varieties grown there are such that they depend on rains," he said.

As regards Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, the crop was in a good shape, he said.

On special efforts made by the directorate to help wheat farmers reap better gains, Dr Mishra said his officials had held frontline demonstration of the crop. "There has been a gap between the realised yield during our experiments of the crop and the actual yield when farmers grow a particular variety of wheat on the field. Therefore, we did frontline demonstration to help farmers realise better yield," he said.

Also, farmers were "acquainted" with select varieties of wheat for zero tillage farming. "Zero tillage farming has been carried out in 20 lakh hectares this year. It helps to save input costs by nearly Rs 3,000 a hectare," Dr Mishra said.

Zero tillage allows early and timely sowing of wheat crop and reduces the cost of production through lesser use of fossil fuels and herbicides which are used to burn the roots of the previous crop. It also results in saving water for irrigation since less water is required for first irrigation of the crop. Besides, it results in early sowing and also preventing early wear and tear of farm implements such as tractor.

"We expect these measures to yield fair results to the growers," he said.

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