A Dry Wheat Season

India's wheat revolution began with the introduction of the dwarf, fertiliser-responsive high-yielding strains from Mexico. This resulted in a well-documented and dramatic rise in production "" from a meagre 6.4 million tonne in 1950 to nearly 65.5 million tonne in 1994-95. Productivity in the same period rose from 6.5 quintal a hectare to 25.5 quintal. And at 40 quintal per hectare, Punjab records the highest productivity. The ratio of wheat to rice in the country's food basket has risen from a third in 1950-51 to over four-fifth in 1994-95.

The government is concerned because in 1995-96 wheat output fell by nearly 1.5 million tonne from previous year's peak of 65.5 million tonne.

 

The average productivity also showed a decline (from 25.53 quintal to 25.42 quintal a hectare) for the first time since the mid-1980s. Although the actual reasons for this fall are yet to be precisely identified, the agriculture ministry suspects that there has been a diversion of about half-a-million hectare of land under wheat to other lucrative cash crops.

Experts also suggest that the imbalanced application of fertiliser nutrients has impinged on soil productivity in intensive wheat-growing areas. The government's response has been to indicate that the wheat prices would be raised and the announcement would be made ahead of the crop-sowing season, which begins with the onset of winter in November.

Meanwhile, to boost wheat yield, the government has launched a special foodgrain production programme targeted at the seven major wheat-growing states "" Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The idea is to increase area coverage and improve cultivation practices. The government has earmarked Rs 156.82 crore for this in the eighth plan.

Also demonstration and training programmes are being implemented in identified districts of states in which productivity is lower than the national average.

As part of this package, the agricultural research institutes have also released new, improved varieties of seeds in different parts of the country. These include PBW 343 for timely-sowing in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, parts of Rajasthan and the foothills of Himachal Pradesh and Raj 3765 for late planting in this region.

The other two varieties, K 9107 and HP 1731, are fortimely-sowing in irrigated tracts in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and north-eastern states. Besides, two new varieties, HD 2610 and DWR 195, have been released for the peninsular zone comprising Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

But even as the government works at increasing production and productivity, its efforts to export part of the country's surplus have not been too successful.

Though the government had allowed the export of 2.5 million tonne of wheat in 1995 and announced an ad hoc quota for the current year, no more than about a million tonne has actually been shipped.

This is way below the potential; Indian exporters have been able to secure orders worth 2.5 million tonne in international markets despite their debutant status.

The shortfall in export is mostly due to a chronic shortage of export infrastructure (of railway wagons to transport wheat to ports, for instance) and of frequent changes in official policies on the sale of foodgrain to exporters from the official stocks.

Worse, some of the export consignments of wheat were rejected because they were ridden with Karnal bunt, a fungus infection.

Yet the potential for Indian wheat exports is huge. The scope, however, lies in exporting durum wheat, which is used for making pasta, macaroni, spaghetti and noodles. At present, this variety is grown only in parts of Madhya Pradesh.

The encouraging news is that several varieties of this high yielding wheat are now available and likely to become popular in some areas of the north-western wheat belt. As durum cultivation catches on, India is likely to find a place on the global wheat map fairly soon.