Wheat cultivation in Punjab reduced by 36,000 hectares as state focuses more on oilseeds

According to field reports collected by the Punjab agriculture department, the state has recorded around 34.90 lakh hectare area under wheat crop this year compared to 35.26 lakh hectares last year. This year, the state targeted to divert around 75,000 hectares of land from wheat to oilseeds out of which nearly 48 per cent target could be achieved, officials said.

Among the districts which have reduced the maximum area of wheat cultivation is Hoshiarpur district, (around 10,000 ha less area), followed by Fazilka (7,000 ha less area), and Mohali (nearly 4,000 ha less area). The rest of the districts of Punjab have recorded 1,000 to 2,000 ha less area of wheat cultivation this year.

The maximum area where wheat was cultivated was in Sangrur district (2.91 lakh ha). Bathinda recorded 2.60 lakh ha this year against around 2.61 lakh ha last year; Ludhiana 2.43 lakh ha against 2.44 lakh hectares last year; Patiala 2.33 lakh ha against 2.34 last year; Muktsar Sahib 2.18 lakh ha against 2.19 lakh ha last year; Firozpur recorded 1.87 lakh ha against last year’s 1.88 lakh ha. In Gurdaspur, 1.83 lakh ha of wheat crop was cultivated against last year’s 1.84 lakh ha.

Ropar and Tarn Taran are the only two districts in the state where a small increase in wheat area was recorded as compared to last year. In Ropar around 68,000 ha was recorded against last year’s 67, 500 ha and in Tarn Taran, 1.86 lakh ha were recorded against around 1.85 lakh ha last year.

In Punjab, the lowest wheat cultivated area is recorded in Pathankot (39,000 ha) followed by Mohali where less than 50,000 ha is dedicated for the crop.

Last year due to the early heat wave in March when the wheat crop was in the last leg of its maturity the wheat grain shrivelled and productivity was reduced manifold.

The state had recorded around 42.16 quintals of wheat per hectare last year against the normal average of 50 to 51 quintals, which means the state has recorded overall around 16% less yield, while in some districts the loss was between 20% and 25% per hectare.

Dr Gurvinder Singh, Director of Punjab Agriculture Department, said that this year the state wanted to increase the area of cultivation of Rabi oilseeds such as mustard/rapeseed. “We could be able to divert nearly 36,000 ha from wheat to oilseeds crops which is the need of the hour.

He said that though they wanted to decrease the area under wheat this year, up to 34.50 lakh hectares still our department has achieved a fair target and from next year more area would be dedicated under the oilseed by reducing the area under wheat crop,” he said.

This year the Centre has announced a Rs. 2,125 per quintal minimum support price (MSP) for wheat which is an increase of Rs.110 per quintal as compared to last year. The central government wants to boost the production of one of the main food grains because of the huge demand for wheat worldwide due to the Russia-Ukraine war as both fighting countries used to share 25% of the wheat export in the world.

But at the same time, India is also highly dependent on the import of edible oil because of which there is a need to increase the area under seed oils too, officials said.