As floods, rains delay wheat sowing, farmers told to opt for late varieties

The devastating floods and incessant rains have led to delayed sowing of wheat this year. As ideal time for sowing wheat crop was till November 15, the area under wheat cultivation was 4.85 lakh hectares less than the last year.

The data collected by The Tribune from the Agriculture Department shows that area under wheat so far is just 30.14 lakh hectares, as compared to 35 lakh hectares during the previous rabi season.

Various factors have contributed to delay in sowing of wheat, including accumulation of silt in the fields brought by overflowing rivers, over 5,300 acres of land being washed away and delay in cotton picking in south Malwa.

This is a major cause for concern, not just because it affects the livelihoods of farmers and economy, but also because it affects the state’s overall contribution to the central pool of foodgrain.

Alarmed, the Agriculture Department has recommended several late sown varieties of wheat to farmers, so that the state’s overall wheat production does not gets impacted.

“PBW RS1 and PBW Unnat 550 can be sown till the end of November, while PBW 771 and PBW 752 can be sown till December end. We have also started recommending another variety — PBW 757 — which can be sown till January 15. Farmers, who have not been able to sow the crop now, can go in for these varieties. We are confident that if the farmers start sowing these late sown varieties, the wheat production may not be impacted,” said an official of the department.

Though the state government had announced to supply free seeds to flood-affected farmers, they alleged that the seeds arrived after the sowing period got over.

Dismissing the allegations, Director Agriculture Jaswant Singh said all eligible farmers got free seeds on time.

“Eligible farmers were verified by the Revenue Department, which conducted the special girdawari. We started distributing free seeds from October 23 onwards and 1.50 lakh quintals of seeds have been distributed,” he said.