Punjab wheat yield set to hit all-time high this rabi season
According to Punjab Agricultural University vice-chancellor SS Gosal there was no pest attack and untimely hailstorms and winds affected the crop only in limited pockets, which will boost the yield.Conducive weather conditions, including long winters with plenty of sunshine and prevailing low night temperatures, will aid in a bumper wheat harvest this rabi season, experts said on Friday.
To be sure, the Punjab agriculture department has pegged the total production at 162 lakh tonnes, which is 1 lakh tonnes higher than the 2022-23 rabi season. Based on these estimates, the state food and civil supplies department has pegged the procurement targets at 132 lakh tonnes. The area under wheat has been stagnant for past many years and this season, the crop was sown over 35.08 lakh hectares (86 lakh acres).
“We are closely watching the crop, and the university feels, the production will witness a quantum jump this season. How much, it is to be seen,” said SS Gosal, vice-chancellor, Punjab Agricultural University.
Even as 1,307 mandis and procurement centres were opened on April 1 for procurement of wheat, so far the crop has not started arriving in the mandis. As per trends from the previous seasons, arrivals generally started from the last week of March and this change in the trend, late maturing and low temperatures, hints towards a bumper crop and the production can even breach the all-time high record of 182.57 lakh tonnes.
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