Wheat yield down eight percent in Uruzgan this year

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): Agriculture officials in central Uruzgan province report an eight percent decease in wheat yield this year mainly due to drought, cultivation of poppy and not providing farmers with timely improved seed and fertilizer.

Farmers cultivate large swaths of land with wheat crop in Uruzgan each year beside other crops  to meet their need and sell the yield to others.

Engineer Qudratullah Hamidi, extension manager at the agriculture department of Uruzgan, told Pajhwok Afghan News that wheat was planted on 24957 hectares of land in the province this year compared to 27128 hectors  last year, showing an eight percent decrease.

Farmers harvested 91951 metric tons of wheat last year while this year they harvested 84594 metric tons, which could meet the need of 60 percent of the province population.

Hamidi said rain-fed lad was not cultivated with wheat in the province this year due to drought, which was one of the reasons behind the decline in yields.

For this reason, he said, he had sent letters to the security organs not to allow movement of wheat from outside the province in order to avoid scarcity of the commodity.

Hamidi added that drought, opium poppy cultivation and failure to provide farmers with timely improved wheat seeds and fertilizers were the main reasons for the decline in wheat yields in Uruzgan this year.

He said they distributed wheat seed to farmers in Tirinkot, the provincial capital, and some districts but had been unable to distribute it to all farmers.

However, he hoped the issue would be resolved next year and the province would be able to produce wheat as required besides other crops.

Farmers in Uruzgan also confirmed the decline in wheat yield which could not meet their need.

Sardar Wali, a farmer in Tirinkot, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the drought and the failure of farmers to give chemical fertilizers to their crops  this year reduced the yields.

Another farmer, Wahidullah, criticized the agriculture department for not providing them with improved seeds and chemical fertilizers, which led to lower yields.

Apart from Uruzgan, the wheat yield has been low in southern provinces this year.

Farmers in Uruzgan urge the authorities to build dams for water resources and agricultural development in the province and to provide them with improved seeds and chemical fertilizers from time to time.

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