Moga, April 10: The latest spell of unseasonal rain during the past 24 hours in most of the districts in Punjab will likely delay the harvest of wheat by one week.
A senior official of the Agriculture Department said the areas which received good rainfall were likely to witness a delay in the harvesting of wheat and mustard crops by about one week.
No matter, the farmers had started manual harvesting in some villages of Bathinda, Mansa, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Moga and Faridkot districts, but the arrival of foodgrains in the markets had not been continuous.
The Agriculture Department was initially expecting the harvest to commence around April 10, but now, the arrival of wheat in the markets is likely to pick up sometime around April 18 and will last till May 15.
Agriculture officials say that the markets across the state are likely to witness a glut of foodgrains from April 20 to May 5 putting a burden on the procurement process.Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, a state award-winner agro-scientist, suggested the farmers to wait for the crop to dry before commencing the harvest.
“The farmers should not harvest in panic. It is better they wait for the crop to dry or else they may suffer losses,” he said.
As per the official figures of the Agriculture Department, a production of 1.64 crore tonnes of wheat is expected during the current harvesting season in the state, which is slightly lower than the last year’s production. The wheat crop has been cultivated in 34.80 lakh hectares this year. In 2016-2017, it was in 35 lakh hectares.
Source Tribune India
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