Gujarat farmers lost Rs 20,000 crore due to  low productivity in wheat crops

Due to low productivity, the farmers of Gujarat had to lose Rs 20,000 crore more than the North Indian farmers.

Gandhinagar, 28 August 2020

Finding more productive varieties of wheat is a major challenge for scientists. Gujarat produces an average of 3100 kg of wheat per hectare. Good quality and good maturity can be up to 4500 kg. No more can be produced than that. Scientists in Gujarat have not developed a good variety that can produce 10,000 kg of wheat in a hector. But there are many varieties in India that produce 8200 kg to 9700 kg of wheat.

In North India, 5000 kg wheat is harvested per hectare. A 3100 kg crop is grown in Gujarat. Thus farmers of Gujarat are losing 1900 kg per hectare. Therefore, the farmers of Gujarat cannot afford the price in front of the farmers of North India. If the Government of Gujarat, Department of Agriculture, 4 Agricultural Universities, Agricultural Scientists and farmers did not increase the production of wheat, the farmers of Gujarat have suffered greatly.

In 2019-20, last year, i.e. 13.83 lakh hectares of wheat was cultivated. The government has shown good productivity that year. However, there was a loss of 983 CR Kg wheat. The production loss at Rs 20 per kg is Rs 19,660-20,000 crore. This is a huge amount for any region. It represents a serious crisis. This is a situation that has to be decided by the Agriculture Department to develop high yielding wheat varieties immediately.

10 thousand kg productivity in N. India

DBW 303 variety – 9740 kg, WH1270 variety 9150 kg, DBW222 variety 8200-8210 kg, DBW 187 variety 9660-10000 kg per hectare yield in India.

4450-4500 Kg per hectare production

Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh, Terai region of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir and Una district of Himachal Pradesh and Panta Valley are the most productive agricultural areas in the country, covering about 12.33 million hectares Wheat is cultivated in the area. The region produces the highest wheat production of 57.83 million tonnes. The average productivity of wheat in the region is 44.50 quintals per hectare.

Over the years, wheat varieties HD 3086 and HD 2967 have been widely grown in the region. These varieties are replaced by seeds of DBW 187 (Karan Vandana), DBW 222 (Karan Narendra) and HD 3226 (Pusa Yashasvi). High production capacity and disease resistant varieties are DBW 303 and WH1270.

3400 kg production in W. India region

These agricultural areas are Kota and Udaipur in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (Jhansi and Chitrakoot divisions). Wheat cultivation in the area is about 6.84 million hectares and production is 21.99 million tons. The average productivity of wheat in the region is about 34.55 quintals per hectare. Gujarat’s production is much less than that.

Gujarat’s wheat productivity 3100 kg

Kalyan Sona, released in 1967, weighed between 3600 and 3800 kg and is grown in Gujarat today. Finally a new variety GW G66 is produced in 2006 with 4800-5200 per hectare production. Lok-1 gives 4500 to 5000 kg, Raj-1555 durum 4000-5000 kg. GW 496, GW 503, GW 190, GW 273, GW1139, GW173 – Golden- varieties are recommended by the Department of Agriculture.

49.61 quintal per hectare can be produced by adopting the recommended production technology of wheat. However, 4 Agricultural Universities and Agricultural Directors do not show any interest in taking so much production in Gujarat.

Excessive use of chemicals

Wheat is widely fertilized with chemical fertilizers. In which 60 kg of nitrogen and phosphorus per hectare are lost in the soil at the time of sowing. In wheat crop, zinc sulfate 25 kg, potash 10 kg, total 150 kg of chemical fertilizer is applied per hectare. Thus 160 million kg of chemical fertilizer is used in Gujarat. In Gujarat, 2.50 kg of manure is used per person. Gujarat produces 436 crore kg of wheat.

15.88 million kg of manure is used. Which is 3 kg according to Gujarat fertilizer. Out of which harmful elements are spoiling the weather of Gujarat. Out of 250 crore kg wheat produced in Gujarat, 16 crore kg is being used as chemical fertilizer. 100–150 kg of nitrogen, 70–80 kg of phosphorus, 125–150 kg of potash are used to produce 5000 kg of wheat.