Heavy rain and severe cold has started affecting the wheat plant in Punjab, said reports reaching here in the market. Wheat traders in Karachi said that cold has damaged wheat plants, which are in its initial stage sending worrying signals for the province called as wheat bowl of the country. Traders said that reports from central Punjab and in the north of Pakistan were worrying as the cold frozen the plants and broke them at initial stage.

"We have reports of this kind of damage but don't know the exact damage," said a wheat trader in Karachi.

He said the most important of all was that new spell of cold still exist there and continue to cast its bad effect on the wheat crops.

Pakistan has been facing a tough time as it produced less wheat than consumption last year.

It produced around 19.2 million tons wheat while it imported 1.5 million tons.

However, the shortage kept its pressure on prices, which shot up by 60 percent in the year 2004. Despite all efforts from the government, the prices remained at much higher. The flour, which was generally available at Rs 10 per kg is now being sold at Rs 16 per kg.

The government raised the wheat support price from Rs 350 per 40 kg to Rs 400 per 40 kg.

The decision was taken to increase the wheat production in the country.

The government expects to produce 21 to 22 million tons wheat in this season.

The high hopes came from more than 50 percent higher yield in the cotton this year and a record production of about 14.5 million bales has been achieved.

The traders said if damages to wheat plants come to a significant level, the wheat prices would further go high.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005