Wheat Yield Concerns in Pakistan

In past years Pakistan has been an important importer of wheat. This situation would never be desirable for the farmers, economic experts and the government bodies. It is believed that the future increase in wheat production may be ensured through yield enhancement since land resources will decline.

The area under wheat cultivation would decrease to grow pulses and oilseed crops to overcome the gap in their supply and demand. Efforts to increase the wheat production have always been the concern of the researchers who have developed technologies for its production.

The agricultural department publishes brochures and booklets for recommended production technologies for each crop. These are considered as recommended technological package. The technological package includes varietals selection, land preparation practices, sowing schedule, seed rate, fertilizers, irrigation schedule, weed control, insect pest and disease control and even harvesting practices. By adopting these recommended technologies, the farmers can get higher yield.

Crop production largely depends on the choice of variety. The seed must be healthy, cleaned and treated to get higher yield. If the choice and practices are right as recommended by the experts for that particular area, then there will be definitely higher yield.

About 78 per cent of the farmers sow the recommended varieties.
Timely sown wheat gives higher yield and delayed sowing negatively affects the yield. The wheat experts believe that one day delay after November 20 reduced the yield from 15 to 20 kg per acre. The problem of delayed wheat sowing in the rice-wheat zone is due to late rice harvesting. Main reason behind late sowing of wheat in the mixed cropping zone is the late vacation of the field mainly by sugarcane crop. Only 54 per cent of the farmers sow wheat in time.

Farm experts prefer the practice of line sowing rather broadcast method. However, farmers generally practice broadcast method for wheat in order to save time and resources. Only 27 per cent of the growers practice line sowing as per recommendation of the department. The recommended seed rate for timely wheat sowing i.e., before November 20 is 50kg per acre. If the sowing is delayed to December, then the recommended seed rate increases to 70kg per acre. Whereas farm level practice is contrary to this. The farmers generally apply seed @ 40kg per acre for timely sowing and little late sowing, and 50kg per acre for December sowing. Only 45 per cent of the farmers apply seed rate as per department recommendation.

Fertilizer application is a key input for better crop production. The timely and balanced use of fertilizer increases the yield by five to 10 mounds per acre. The farmers of different areas generally apply nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers but they don’t apply the potash fertilizer. Only two per cent of the growers apply fertilizer according to the recommendation of the department. The obvious reason for low fertilizer application is its price.

Wheat crop generally requires three to four irrigations at different stages of growth. There are three critical stages i.e., first irrigation normally 20-25 days after sowing, second at boot stage and third at milk stage of grain development. About 88 per cent of the growers apply irrigation as recommended by experts.

Weed control is important to get higher yield of wheat crop. It is estimated that weeds reduce the yield by 30 to 40 per cent. About 75 per cent of the farmers who apply weedicides.

Some recommended technologies like land preparation, varieties, irrigation and weed control are well adopted while others like sowing time, sowing method, seed rate and fertilizer application are not well followed. Most of the farmers do not care and fail to timely sow their crop due to number of reasons. There is serious decline of yield due to late planting. We should develop technologies to minimize this problem. Similarly, sowing method and seed rate of the of the farmers are not as per recommendation of the agricultural department. So, there is strong need to increase the rate of adoption of these technologies. Fertilizers application is not appropriate among the wheat production technologies. The reasons of low application should be seriously reviewed and properly tackled. The adoption of weed control practices is high among the some advance farmers. Efforts should be made to further improve the weed control practices.