Faced with growing food security concerns and a stagnant yield of wheat over the past decade, the government is grappling to find solutions to feed the millions of hungry.
Wheat yield reached a plateau in the country since 2001 at an all-India average productivity of just 28.3 quintals per hectare. Thou-gh wheat production grew at 3.6 per cent in the past decade, productivity rema-ined a poor 1.7 per cent during the same period.
Sources said the major challenges before the agriculture ministry is to break the yield barrier, broaden genetic base of the varieties and introduce biotechnology interventions in order to improve wheat productivity. Add to this the biotic stress factors including drought and heat, both at the early and terminal stage of the crop, and increasing soil degradation due to nutrient deficiency and water logging.
Gearing up for the rabi sowing season, which starts from October, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will review the preparedness levels of the 9 wheat-producing states on October 19 and 20 in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Data available shows while wheat productivity in Punjab and Haryana has been 42 and 43 quintals per hectare, others like Rajasthan, UP, West Bengal and Gujarat have been ranging between 26 quintals per hectare and 29 quintals per hectare only.
Around 40 per cent of the wheat producing states lie in the north western plains including Punjab, Haryana, Western UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, HP and Uttarakhand.
The north eastern plains account including eastern UP, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Assam and West Bengal, account for around 33 per cent of the crop followed by 18 per cent production coming from MP, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.