LAHORE, Nov 20: AgriForum Pakistan on Thursday claimed that only 28 per cent wheat had been sown throughout the province despite the lapse of optimum date (Nov 20) and feared drop in final yield.

“All production factors have turned negative and only a miracle can help the country achieve its target of 25 million ton,” said Ibrahim Mughal while presiding over a meeting of the forum.

Mughal said prices of fertiliser and diesel, availability issue of fertiliser, herbicides and water would damage the crop.

The farmers had also missed the optimum sowing date by a big margin and weather factor would, at best, remain a question mark. Under the circumstances, Pakistan, in all probability, would not go beyond the figure of last year – 20.9 million ton, he said.

Mr Mughal demanded that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif convene a meeting of farmer bodies to chalk out a strategy for optimising wheat production and meet the provincial target of 20 million ton.

Rana Majid Zafar, one of the participants of the meeting, was of the view that cotton and rice belts were mainly responsible for slowing down the pace of wheat sowing. Hardly 15 per cent of cotton and 40 per cent of rice belt had been sown.

Zafar said as prices of both the commodities had crashed by almost 30 per cent, farmers were left with little money to purchase inputs for next crop. “The situation calls for immediate action on marketing side, which, unfortunately, has not been taken so far.”

He said neither the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) nor Pakistan Agriculture Services and Storage Corporation (Passco) had so far assumed big enough role to stabilise the market. Until and unless both the agencies take up a major role, farmers may not have enough money to properly sow wheat crop, he claimed.

“The non-irrigated areas always play a big role in final yield of wheat,” claims Tariq Ali Shah, an agriculturalist and participant of the meeting. Reports suggest that only 40 per cent of this area has been sown so far. Normally, every passing day costs 16kg of yield after Nov 20. By that calculation, some 72 per cent of crop has fallen in late-sown category and would suffer in final yield.