LAHORE, Dec 23: The Punjab had sown wheat on 14.788 million acres up to Dec 20, which was 96.34 per cent of the target for the year.

Though the Punjab Agriculture Department and the experts do not recommend sowing after Dec 15, farmers still opt to sow wheat instead of leaving the fields empty for the rest of the Rabi season. Therefore, the Punjab government hopes, it would be able to meet the target of 15.3 million acres, which is only 600,000 acres away.

Punjab Agriculture Secretary Arif Nadeem thinks that the province would fare better than last year because of four crucial factors: more consumption of graded seed and weedicides, availability of water after a hiatus of four years and 27 per cent more consumption of DAP till Nov 20.

In addition to these factors, sowing was 10 per cent better than last year on Nov 15 and 9.6 per cent better on Nov 20. Both are crucial dates for determining the final yield.

But the farmers have their own point of view about the final yield. The province has missed the target for all practical purposes. Any sowing after Dec 15 can only yield nominal crop, which may not affect the overall national production.

The remaining 600,000 acres would also not be able to make any major difference in the final statistics. Even the wheat sown between Dec 15 and 20 would not affect the total yield, they insist. The department was trying to find a saving grace by hiding behind these figures despite full knowledge of their absurdity, they claim.

According to them, the situation is pathetic specially if considered against the backdrop of the recent decision to import wheat. The officials concerned had been insisting till the very last moment that there was no shortage of wheat. The irony of the situation is that those in charge are still being made to believe that the import is meant to offset speculative pressure on wheat price rather than actual shortage. The province would miss the target of 16 million tons set by the Federal Committee of Agriculture (FAC) for the Punjab, and the managers would come up with new reasons to explain the failure to the leaders. This vicious cycle needed to be broken, the farmers insisted, saying: “The provincial authorities must identify reasons for the low yield and acreage and come up with practical solutions. Passing the buck has not and would not help anyone’s cause.”

PASSCO TENDER: The Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation on Tuesday invited bids for the import of 150,000 tons of wheat as part of the government decision to import 0.5 million tons. The bids would be opened on Jan 6 and the successful bidder required to supply wheat by Feb 15 —- two months before the arrival of the new crop.