Poor yield upsets Haryana wheat growers, govt unlikely to meet procurement targets
KARNAL: The poor yield of early harvest of wheat has upset the prospects of a bumper harvest of farmers and is likely to dwindle the government’s production and procurement estimates in Haryana.
Following an interaction with farmers who have already harvested their produce, it was learnt that the per acre yield has declined to around 4 to 8 quintal per acre against the average of 20 quintal – thus causing financial losses of Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000 from every acre under wheat.
“This year, the total production from my five acre under wheat was around 75 quintal, while last year it was near 105 quintal from the same land. The crop looked healthy but the size and colour of the grain was affected due to bad weather,” said aggrieved farmer Desh Raj, of Karnal’s Nilokheri.
Another farmer Prem Chand, who sold his produce of two acre at Ladwa grain market in Kurukshetra, said, “I have never seen such a fall in wheat yield. My two acre produced just 19 quintal.”
Officials of the agriculture department blamed unfavourable weather conditions and heavy rain during January and February for the poor yield.
Aditya Dabas, deputy director (agriculture), Karnal, told HT that the crop was healthy but the weather remained unfavourable for wheat this year, especially during January and February. During these months, there were around 29 days without sunlight – affected the growth of grain as well as the plant.
Dabas also blamed the sudden increase in temperature in March for the poor yield as it had adverse effect on the lateral varieties.
Karnal is one of the top wheat-producing districts of Haryana but officials of the agriculture department had predicted around 8-10% decline in the yield in district against 20.7 quintal per acre last year, citing adverse weather conditions.
Earlier, the state agriculture department had set a target of total wheat production of state to remain around 124 lakh MT from 25.5 lakh hectare under wheat this year, but now, they are of the view that the production is to remain at around 115 lakh MT.
Haryana agriculture minister JP Dalal, during his visit to Karnal, said arrival of wheat was poor in many mandis, especially in southern parts of the state.
Officials associated with procurement operations said due to poor yield, government agencies will not be able to achieve its procurement target of 85 lakh MT against the 84.93 lakh MT wheat procured in Haryana last year.
“Though it is too early to predict anything right now and initial procurement reports suggest that the overall procurement in state will remain around 70 lakh MT this year,” said a senior officer of the state agriculture marketing board, pleading anonymity.
Besides the reduced yield, officials said, another reason behind poor arrival in many mandis is farmers from Uttar Pradesh not bringing their produce to Haryana mandis as they are getting good prices in the local purchase centres thus affecting government’s procurement estimates.