Multiple reasons – particularly water scarcity, unavailability of quality fertiliser, and substandard and rusted seeds – have reduced the wheat yield in Thatta and Sujawal, Minute Mirror learnt on Thursday.
The growers, as well as concerned authorities, revealed that the federal government had tasked the provincial governments to produce 30 million tonnes of wheat for this year, following which the wheat was cultivated on around 20,000 acres by growers with a huge investment in both districts.
The growers of the two districts – who have been suffering at the hands of the dearth of irrigation water and could not earn much from paddy – had pinned their hopes on the wheat crop, but that too could not bring fruitful results for them. As much as 30 to 40 maunds per acre were expected for this year, but the current production ratio of wheat was reported to be 10 to 15 maunds per acre, lessening the yield by 50 percent in the districts as compared to the last year.
Growers related the low yield of wheat to multiple causes, and key among those was high rates of inferior quality fertilisers and persistent shortage of water in the coastal belt of both districts.
