HYDERABAD, Nov 20: Agriculture experts at a seminar held in Tandojam said there was need for increasing per acre wheat yield to meet country’s food requirement. They said that in France, wheat yield per acre was 71 maunds and in Mexico it was 50 maunds.

They said that in India and Pakistan the per acre yield was only 28 maunds and in Sindh on an average per acre yield of wheat was 30 maunds.

They said that the country had to import two million tons of wheat per annum to meet its domestic requirement.

The seminar was organised by the Technology Transfer Institute of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council.

Dr Muneer Ahmed, member (social sciences) of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council Islamabad said that wheat was being cultivated on 37 per cent of land of the country, but it was not enough to meet the growing needs of the people.

He said that under the circumstances the people should try to supplement their diet with rice and other edibles.

He said that 20 per cent of land was reserved for animal fodder and urged the growers to increase the per acre yield of wheat.

Sindh Agriculture Secretary Mohkamuddin Qadri stressed the need for good quality of wheat seed and added that in this regard, private and public sectors had been instructed to cooperate in evolving a good quality wheat seed.

He said that under instructions from Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, subsidy would be provided on tube-wells for which a survey was in progress.

He said that at present 7,000 tube-wells were operational in the province.

He assured the growers that scientific research being conducted by agriculture experts on various aspects of the agriculture sector would be transferred to growers.

The director-general of the Sindh agriculture research, Mr Hidayatullah Chhajro, said that the department had evolved a good quality of wheat seed and added that so far, 8,000 maunds of seed had been supplied to growers.

He said that good quality seed of other crops was also being provided to growers at reasonable rates.

The director-general of the Sindh agriculture extension, Mr Naeem Korejo, stressed the need for collaboration between public and private sectors for soil testing with a view to increasing the productivity of land.

He said that if subsidy was provided to growers as was being done in other countries, it would have a salutary effect on the development of agriculture.The director-general of agriculture engineering, Agha Zafarullah Durrani said that positive results in crop production could not be achieved without levelling the fields.

He pointed out that in Punjab, between 4,000 and 5,000 land-levellers were working whereas the number of land levellers in Sindh was even less than 100.

Dr Ali Mohammad Khushik said the land could not be prepared for wheat cultivation due to the delay in the sugarcane crushing season, therefore late sowing of wheat would badly affect its production.

Dr Haji Khan Keerio, Ather Haqi of Engro Chemicals, Syed Haji Nadeem Shah and Noor Ahmed Nizamani also spoke on the occasion.