Consecutive rain spells to help produce bumper crops

ISLAMABAD: The consecutive rain spells that started in January and have been continuing in the second month of the year with some intervals, would be a blessing for all seasonal crops, fruit orchids and vegetables, agriculture experts said.

Due to a paradigm shift in weather pattern owing to global warming, these rain spells, persisting on average for 2 to 3 days, have also helped in overcoming the water shortage, improving the ground-water level and strengthening the swiftly depleting water reservoirs of the country.

Although the rains were slow in intensity, these were persistent and helped in absorbing the rainwater and retaining the moisture, which is helpful for the cultivation of upcoming Kharif crops.

These blessed rain spells had also created a new ray of hope among the farming communities all across the country as bumper production of various crops cultivated during the season including wheat, mustard and gram were forecast during current Rabbi season.

Commenting on the impacts of rains on Rabbi crops particularly wheat, Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr Imtiaz Ahmad Gopang said that due to favourable weather conditions the bumper wheat output of over 25.5 million tons was expected during the current season.

Talking to APP here on Thursday he said that wheat sowing targets were achieved by 99.23 per cent as the crop had been cultivated over 8.76 million hectares of land across the crop producing areas of the country.

He said that the wheat cultivation targets for crop season 2018-19 was set at 8.765 million hectares which was kept slightly down by 100,000 hectares as compared to the last season due to excessive domestic stocks.

Dr Imtiaz Ahmad Gopang said that current spell of rains would bring about a positive impact on wheat as the crop was at the vegetative growth and showers at this stage would help in enhancing of tillering which would boost the output of the crop.

The Food Security Commissioner further informed that rain spells would be largely beneficial for oil seeds and pulses that had been cultivated over thousands of hectares to fulfill the domestic requirements of these commodities, he added.

He said that a significant increase in gram production was also expected during the current season owing to a reduction in frost and favourable weather conditions.