Chandigarh, Feb 9 (PTI) Punjab hopes to achieve an all time high wheat production of 167 lakh tonne for 2011-12 season if weather conditions continue to remain favourable till April. If the weather remains suitable in coming days, the production of wheat could touch 167 lakh tonne this year, which will cross highest ever output of 164.72 lakh tonne achieved last year, the Director of Agriculture in the state M S Sandhu said today. Notably, at the time of sowing, Punjab had projected wheat output at 155.40 lakh tonne. Wheat sowing starts in October end and goes on till mid-December with the harvest taking place in April. The month of January saw intense cold conditions which are beneficial for the wheat crop as it helps in development of tillering or multiplication of crop shoots and brings in higher yield. Besides conducive weather conditions, timely crop sowing and absence of any major attack of fungal disease Â'yellow rustÂ' are other factors which strengthened the stateÂ's hope of achieving bumper wheat output this season. "Right time of sowing of wheat in November and rains in mid January has been quite beneficial for wheat crop which may increase crop yield," said Sandhu. Punjab, which contributes over 50 per cent of wheat to the central pool, expects record yield of 47 quintals per hectare. Last year, wheat yield stood at 46.93 quintals a hectare. Area under wheat went up marginally from 35.10 lakh hectares in last season to 35.15 lakh hectares in 2011-12 season. However, Sandhu said that the yellow rust disease may affect wheat yield of DBW -17 and DH-711 varieties in Ropar, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur districts. He said maximum area was brought under different wheat varieties like HD-2967, PBW-621 and PBW-550 types, which were more resistant to yellow rust disease.
