Rs 841 cr wheat plan unveiled

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today unveiled an action plan to boost wheat production by expanding its cultivation to additional 1.4 million hectares and raising crop productivity in existing area.

To be implemented in the selected 138 districts in 9 states, the proposed action plan would cost Rs 841 crores in the next 3 years. Subsidy would be provided on diesel used for wheat irrigation.

Giving details of the plan in the meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to his ministry, Pawar said wheat output had been stagnating at around 70 million tonne for past several years, while demand was rising. The requirement of wheat would go up from 76.61 million tonne in 2006-07 to about 85 million tonnes by 2011-12.

He said the selected 138 districts were in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and West Bengal.

"The districts identified are those which have large area under wheat; productivity is less than the state or national average; and percentage of irrigated area is high", he said. The proposed plan for boosting crop yields would cover about 50 per cent of the total area under wheat.

The expansion of total wheat acreage by about 1.4 million hectares was possible without displacing other crops such as oilseeds and pulses in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Seed replacement rate would be enhanced from the present 13 per cent a year to 33 per cent. Application of micronutrients and gypsum would be promoted to address the issue of deteriorating soil health. New soil and energy conservation technologies such as zero-tillage would also be popularised through demonstration of improved package of practices for wheat cultivation.

The other measures proposed to step up wheat productivity include timely crop sowing; propagation of area-specific and high-temperature tolerant wheat varieties; and replace of the existing PBW-343 wheat variety with a new improved variety PBW-502. The supply of quality seeds would be augmented to ensure greater use of fresh seeds, instead of farm produced seeds.

Pawar said there were perceptible regional variations in wheat yields at present. The productivity was higher (3.5 to 4.5 tonnes a hectare) in the northern region, especially in Punjab and Haryana, compared with 1 to 2 tonnes) in the southern, central and eastern regions.