Pre and post harvest losses in

wheat

In the economic field Japan continues to be a major trade partner of

Pakistan

By QAMAR-UL-HASSAN SIDDIQUI
&
MUHAMMAD SARWAR
Nuclear Institute of Agriculture(NIA)
Tandojam
Feb-11 - 17, 2002

Basically, Pakistan is an agricultural country and therefore, all roads to the

nation's socio-economic progress and prosperity lead through a
modernizing agricultural and a concurrent effort at industrializing
particularly based on the home grown raw materials. Being the dominant
sector of the economy, agriculture contributes 25% to gross domestic
product (GDP), employees 44% of country's working force and contributes
substantially to export earnings. Major crops such as, wheat, rice, cotton
and sugarcane account for nearly 89% of value added in major crops. The
value added in major crops accounts for 41% of value added in overall
agriculture. Thus, these four major crops, on an average, contribute 36.5%
to the value added in agriculture. While, the minor crops such as pulses,
potato, vegetables, fruits etc. account for 10% of value added.

Our major objectives are to increase the production, either by increase in

areas or productivity. Acreage increase has limitations like scarcity of water
and precariously established balance in land allocation between equally
important cash crops. Any disturbance in this balance may cause another
crisis, more or less of equal severity. Hence, productivity enhancement
along with pre and post harvest losses management are the only
alternative and is viable meaningfully, because of the existing differential
between the national average and the potential. The low national average
is due to the fact, that three-fourth of the farmers do not use proper
technological management in adequate quantity and proper combination of
local available resources.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) belongs to the Gramineae family. In Pakistan

wheat is the most important food crop. The largest cropped area is devoted
to wheat, which is about 8.5 million hectares and the quantity produced is
more than that of 2.9% to GDP. The unprecedented drought conditions in
the country have severely affected the wheat crop. Firstly, the area under
the crop declined by 3.8% from 8463 thousand hectares to 8137 thousand
hectares in the year 2000-2001. Secondly, according to the preliminary
estimates, the size of wheat crop is 12.1% lower than the last year,
declining from 21.079 to 18.535 million tons. The area, production and yield
are 8306.6 thousand hectares, 18237.6 thousand tons, and 2196.0
thousand kg per hectare, respectively. On the other hand, its
procurements, releases and stocks are 8582.0, 5537.0 and 3526.0