Chandigarh : On the back of a bumper wheat harvest, Haryana is expected to better its previous record of production achieved in 2011-12. Then, the state had produced 131.19 lakh MT of wheat.

“The estimated wheat production this year is 132.19 lakh MT. The present trends of harvesting show that we are going to cross the target easily. Last year, 113.12 lakh MT of wheat was produced in the state,” said Dushmanta Kumar Bahera, Director, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department.

Of 33 lakh hectares of cultivable land, wheat was grown on 25.23 lakh hectares this year.

“Due to favourable weather conditions, and efforts of farmers as well as field staff of the department, the average yield of wheat is 52.39 quintals this time,” Bahera said.
He further said the temperature as well as humidity was conducive this year. Hence, there were few complaints of pest attack and yellow rust.

Sources said almost similar climatic conditions were observed in 2011-12, when Haryana witnessed a record production of 131.19 lakh MT of wheat.

The state has, meanwhile, already surpassed last year’s figures of wheat production as 75.90 lakh MT of wheat was procured till Thursday.

Additional Chief Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs) Ram Niwas said that last year, the state had procured 74.25 lakh MT. “This time, the government plans to procure 80 lakh MT.”

Sirsa district is on top with procurement of 9.75 lakh MT followed by Karnal (8.27 lakh MT), Jind (7.01 lakh MT), Kaithal (6.76 lakh MT) and Fatehabad (6.2 lakh MT).
Sources said that normally, two-thirds of the production of wheat is procured by agencies in the state, while the remaining is held back by farmers for their own use.
Crop on 85 acres gutted

Kurukshetra: In separate fire incidents in the last few days in the district, the standing wheat crop on over 85 acres of land was charred. DC SS Phulia said the crop of Dilip Singh of Amin village had reported the maximum damage on his 30 acre land. He said a special drive to assess losses had been started. The DC said the compensation would be granted as per the policy drafted in 2015. He said the officials had been tasked to undertake girdwari. The DC visited Amin, Hathira, Sirsma and Umri villages on Friday for overseeing the crop loss assessment.