Rains to have positive impact on agriculture production

The recent rains will have a positive impact on overall agriculture production of major Rabi crops, especially wheat, according to agriculture experts. Dr Aslam Gill, Crop Commissioner, Ministry of National Food Security and Research told Business Recorder that the recent rains would have a very positive impact on standing crops, including wheat, gram and orchards, in the country, especially in the rain-fed areas.

He said that rains will also improve per acreage yield as well as crop health. "If a minimum temperature prevails till the end of March, production of wheat will be impressive, but sudden rise of air temperature in March would negatively affect wheat crop as it would reduce grain yield," he said. Dr Gill said that after current rains, the standing wheat crops will quickly shoot up and grow well.

He said that the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) had fixed wheat production at 26.3 million tons for Rabi season 2014-15, with Punjab targeted to produce 19.6m tons, Sindh 4.4m tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.4m and Balochistan 0.9m tons. The committee set gram target of 0.72m tons from an area of 0.99m hectares, he said. Agriculture Policy Institute's (API) chief Abdul Rauf Chaudhry confirmed that the recent rains will increase production of Rabi crops. "Rains will help improve output of wheat as the crop is passing through a growth stage," he said.

Meteorological Department's chief meteorologist Dr Ghulam Rasool said that rains with snowfall on the hills will continue till Tuesday. Partly cloudy weather conditions will continue till mid-February, he added. He said that widespread rains with snowfall on the hills is forecast for Islamabad, upper/central Punjab (Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sahiwal divisions), Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, while at scattered places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, D I Khan divisions) and at isolated places in Balochistan (Kalat, Quetta, Zhob, Sibi, Nasirabad, Makran divisions), South Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur, D G Khan divisions), Upper Sindh (Sukkur and Larkana divisions). According to the Met Office, the coldest place during the last 24 hours was Parachinar (-)10°C, Kalam (-)9°C and Malamjabba (-)8°C.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015