Rawalpindi (Pakistan Point News / Online - 05th May, 2019) The wheat crop harvesting and threshing was on its peak in different localities of District Rawalpindi as farmers in Potohar region were starving hard to cut their crops immediately to avoid any harm from unpredictable rains in the region.Wheat harvesting has started in almost all parts of the Potohar region including Phulgaran, Shah Allah Ditta, Rawat, Kallar Syedan, Lohi Bher, Taxila, Kahuta, Sagri, Raqqa, Attock, Chak Beli Khan, Fatehjang, Tarnol, Golra, Gujar Khan, Chatta Bakhtawar, Sihala, Ari Syedan and Mandra.
Crop cutting in hilly areas of Murree and Kotli Satyan have also started.According to media there was wheat crop on 290,000 acres of land in Rawalpindi region and getting around 275.26000 tons wheat every year. Currently area growers were facing unpredictable rains and hailstorm which was creating an unrest situation among them. Wheat crop is ready in majority of areas in Rawalpindi region for two weeks. But, harvesting was doing in period due to unpredictable rains and hailstorms.
However, in some localities of Rawalpindi like Gujar Khan, Taxila and Kallar Syedan harvesting of about 98pc wheat has completed. According to data obtained from the agriculture department, the total cultivated area in Taxila is 40,697 acres - 4,876 acres irrigated and the remaining Barani. Areas fed by both rain and tubewells had produced a high yield of wheat. In various parts of the rural areas, farmers were seen harvesting and at the same time threshing the crop.
It revealed in Survey conducted by "Online" that area growers were using different types of machines for wheat harvesting and threshing. In Teshil Gujar Khan these wheat trashing machine harvester charging Rs. 500 per Kanal and on the other land labor men were charging Rs 1000 per Kanal of wheat cutting. Another machine called wheat cutting wiper was charging Rs. 800 per kanal. On the other hand Wheat thresher machine was charging Rs 1500 per hour.
Most of the area growers viewed that it was much expensive. A few big farmers have their own threshing machines while about 90pc of small growers hired machinery to ensure timely completion of the process.However, some farmers expressed the hope that it would remove their economic worries caused by the low production in successive years due to different reasons such as no timely rain, unfavorable weather conditions, unavailability or high cost of fertilizer and poor insecticides.
However, some farmers complained that unavailability of machinery used to separate grain from husk was damaging the harvested crop forcing the farmers to hire the services of private threshing outlets. "I see farmers rushing out to fields with their harvesting equipment, kicking dirt and cutting wheat, one field at a time.A farmer belong to Data Bhatt village of Tehsil Gujar Khan, which is just 40 kilometre from Mandra, 55-year-old Raja Mohammad Fayyaz says he was able to grow 50 Kanals of wheat and expected to get higher production.
He stated that wheat production could be increased in Potohar region if governments provide some support in this respect.He stated that farming in the Potohar region is dependent on rain and the area is considered a pluvial region. Wheat is its most important crop and more than 70pc of the rural population is involved in agriculture.On the other hand Potohar Chakwal district agriculture department had fixed a sowing target of 307,000 acres for the district but wheat could only be cultivated on 283,000 acres.
