E-Paper
Early summer hits wheat production in U.P.
The early onset of summer this year has hit wheat production in Uttar Pradesh
The early onset of summer this year has hit wheat production in Uttar Pradesh. The state alone contributes more than 25% of India’s total wheat production.
A recent survey by the state’s agriculture department put the total wheat production in UP in 2022 at 359 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) which is 16 LMT less than the wheat production recorded in 2021.
Wheat production as well as total food grain production had been on the rise for the last few years largely because of favourable monsoons.
“Compared to the previous year, the wheat production this year is estimated to have fallen by around 16 lakh MT given the fact that wheat production in 2021 was recorded to be 375 LMT against 359 LMT this year,” Rajesh Gupta, agriculture director, statistics, said.
“The early arrival of summer this year is the main reason for the decline in the wheat productivity and production in the state,” he added. Since the temperature started to be high right from March, the wheat grains germinated or ripened prematurely because of which both quality and quantity suffered heavily resulting in low production, he explained.
The survey also found that unlike in 2021 when the average wheat production was found to be 38.04 quintal per hectare, this year the output shrank to 36.81 per quintal, sowing having been done on around 98 lakh hectares of area.
According to Gupta, the wheat crop needs a longer cold spell for optimum output but the early onset of summer and heat waves adversely affected the wheat production in the state.
UP, which is the highest wheat-producing state in the country, grows around 100 LMT as market surplus which is sold to government agencies at the minimum support price (MSP) and the private traders at the market price.
Government data shows that UP produces 20% of the country’s total food grain feeding the country’s 16.9% population. This is despite the fact that the state’s share in the country’s cultivatable land is only 11.8%. Wheat alone accounts for more than 50% of the state’s total food production.
