By Pramod Kumar Jha
New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): The Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) has estimated wheat production at a record 115 million tonnes this year, which is around seven per cent more than last year. Experts say that the weather is favourable for the Rabi season crops and farmers have taken a lot of interest in wheat sowing.
Interestingly, farmers have been sitting on a sit-in demonstration for almost three months on the borders of Delhi, yet farming has not been affected.
Agricultural scientist and Director of IIWBR, Gyanendra Pratap Singh told IANS that his institute is assessing wheat production in the country again and a new record will be created. India's wheat production is expected to be around 115 million tonne this year, if there is no weather issue.
Haryana's Karnal situated IIWBR comes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
According to the fourth advance production estimate for the crop year 2019-20 (July-June) released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the production of wheat in the country is estimated at around 100.76 million tonne.
Singh said, "We now have varieties of wheat that are suitable for different climatic zones of the country and give good yields. For example, the yield per hectare of wheat DBW-187 is up to 80 quintal. There are many other varieties of this type."
The IIWBR Director said that sowing of wheat has been very high in Madhya Pradesh this year and the crop is also good. When asked about the reason for the high interest of farmers in sowing wheat, he said that the biggest reason is that the government procurement is increasing continuously, which has ensured that farmers get remunerative prices for wheat. Last season, government agencies purchased 389.83 lakh tonne of wheat from farmers across the country at a fixed minimum support price of Rs 1,925 per quintal. For the wheat crop this year, the Central government has increased the MSP by Rs 50 to Rs 1,975 per quintal.
In the current crop year 2020-21 (July-June), sowing of wheat has been on more than 346 lakh hectare, which is almost three per cent more than the previous year. Wheat sowing has been more than 99 lakh hectare in Uttar Pradesh, while Madhya Pradesh is second, where the area under wheat has increased to 8.8 million hectare. Wheat has been sown in 35 lakh hectares in Punjab and over 25 lakh hectares in Haryana. The area in Haryana has increased slightly while in Punjab it is almost equal to last year.
Punjab Agriculture Department official Gurvinder Singh said that the wheat crop is good in the state and bumper yields are expected as the weather is very favourable for wheat and there is no difficulty in providing timely water and fertiliser for the crop.
Wazir Singh, who is posted as Deputy Director in the Agriculture Department in Panchkula, Haryana, also said that the wheat crop is very good this year in the state and further harvesting season may result in bumper yields if the weather does not hit.