MULTAN, Jan 18: Farmers in major wheat growing districts of southern Punjab Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Khanewal – are giving priority to cultivate sunflower this year owing to below expectation wheat support price announced by the government and costly fertilisers particularly DAP.

The wheat production target for this year has been set at 24 million tons and Federal Committee on Agriculture had estimated that the crop would be sown over 8.57 million hectares (21.1 million acres) across the country.

According to the ministry for food, agriculture and livestock data up to December 31, 2007 about 8.2 million hectares had so far been sown, but experts have expressed their apprehensions that the country might not achieve the wheat target.

Ahmed Rizwan, a commission agent in Khanewal, told Dawn that so far about 3,000 bags of sunflower seeds had been sold out and the same quantity of bags was likely to be procured by the farmers by the end of sowing season.

He said that last year about 400 bags of sunflower seeds of 15-kg each were sold in the district and a bag was sufficient for sowing over five acres.

He said that last year the official sunflower price was fixed at Rs800 per manud, but farmers fetched much higher rates of Rs1,200 per maund following upsurge in international prices of the commodity.

He cited below expectation wheat support price at Rs500 per maund for this season (for which notification is yet to be issued), increase in fertilisers prices and delay in cotton picking operations were main reasons for shifting farmers interest to sunflower sowing which requires less pesticides and fertilisers besides ensuring handsome return.

He said that the average per acre yield of sunflower ranged 25 to 30 maund and that of wheat at 30 to 35 maund, but the production cost on wheat was much higher. “The government purchases wheat on fixed price leaving no opportunity for farmers to get higher prices, while in case of sunflower there is a chance to sell it at higher prices to the private sector,” he added.

He further said that at the beginning of sunflower sowing season a five-kg bag of seeds was available at Rs7,500, but now it was being sold at Rs13,000.

Rana Muhammad Azam, a progressive farmer of Khanewal, said he was sowing sunflower on 50 acres out of total 225 acres for the first time and the rest would remain under wheat cultivation this year.

He said wheat crop had been losing its charm owing to rising production cost due to sharp jump in fertilisers’ prices and lower supporting prices.

The Multan district is currently facing shortage and black-marketing of sunflower seeds following surge in demand.

Hussain Bakhsh, a farmer from Rahim Yar Khan, told Dawn he intended to sow sunflower over 40 acres and for this purpose he arrived here but seeds were not available in the local grain market.

He further said that then he visited the office of Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board (POSDB), but the board officials told him that they could only provide technological information not seeds.