14/04/2011

Experts in Islamabad have said that fresh rains in regions of Pakistan hit by flooding last year could result in higher than expected production of wheat in the country. Pakistan is expected to produce at least 25 million tonnes of wheat in its 2010/11 crop according to Finance Minister Hafiz Shaikh. He told reporters, “We are expecting that our wheat crop this year will cross 25 million tonnes,” he told reporters.

Speaking on Sunday (10^th April), Agrarian and head of the agriculture extension department at Arid Agriculture University, Muhammad Ali, announced even more optimistically that intermittent rains in parts of the country could result in an increase in yield of 20-38 percent on last year’s wheat crop.

Ali said numerous regions could experience an increase in yield after silt left by last year’s flooding, along with the recent rainfall, has left some usually arid land much more fertile. While experts’ speculations over the size of the predicted increase in wheat production vary, there is a consensus that the country will produce a surplus of wheat this year.

Analyst and faculty member at Institute of Development Economics Dr. Zafar Mehmood said the country’s irrigated areas supply enough wheat to meet the country’s needs, but never usually give a surplus. He too put the increase in fertility down to last year’s flood. Mehmood said, “Whenever rainfall occurs at right time it causes increased production in arid areas that result in surplus availability of wheat in the country.”

Pakistan is Asia’s third-largest wheat producer; the country resumed wheat exports in January for the first time in three years after the government lifted an export ban in December. The three-year ban was lifted when the 2009/10 crop led to a surplus. Pakistan currently uses around 22 million tons of wheat per year.