New milestone in wheat, barley production likely

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, May 15

With favourable climatic conditions and high yield of around 50 quintals per hectare, the country is likely to achieve another milestone in wheat and barley production this rabi season.

As per data provided by scientists of the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), the country has produced 99.12 MT of wheat and 1.92 MT of barley so far.

“Favourable climatic conditions between December and March resulted in high yield of wheat and barley. It will break the previous production records,” said Dr GP Singh, Director, IIWBR.

Scientists expected 105 MT of wheat against a target of 102 MT. They were hopeful that barley production would cross the target of 2.10 MT.

“As per the second advanced estimate of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics in Delhi, we have produced 99.12 MT of wheat and 1.92 MT of barley. We are hopeful that the country will produce 105 MT of wheat and 2.10 MT of barley,” he maintained.

He said production could be higher as data was being collected from various states.

Insignificant appearance of yellow rust had contributed a lot and per hectare production of wheat increased from 49 quintal to 50 quintal, he said.

He said Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were major contributors to the central pool. “Haryana has produced 11.3 MT so far, Punjab 17.1 MT, Uttar Pradesh 32.2 MT, Madhya Pradesh 17.22 MT and Rajasthan 9.1 MT,” he said.

Haryana had produced 0.96 MT of barley this season, Punjab 0.41 MT, Madhya Pradesh 2.9 MT, Rajasthan 9.21 MT and Uttar Pradesh 4.8 MT, he said.