The Met Office on Monday asked the farmers of irrigated areas to water just cultivated wheat crop keeping in view a dry weather ahead. "Wheat cultivation has completed in most of the irrigated areas," it said, adding that a dry spell of weather was on its track to grip agriculture plains of the country. Normally, the first irrigation is given 20 to 25 days after sowing of wheat crop while the second one is prior to heading stage and the third at a milk maturity level, it said.

Farmers of rain-depended areas should remove weeds from their fields with a view to help spare existing soil moisture for crop to utilize fully. It warned that the weeds scaled down yield every year, saying that the unwanted plants ate up moisture and fertilizers. It said that the weeds could be removed manually or by using weedcides.

Leaves have starteid falling off from trees that can affect the crops negatively, especially wheat and other Rabi cultivations, the office advised, saying that the farmers should collect the broken foliage at the earliest. It said that night temperature was expected to remain normal in most of the agricultural plains, especially in upper parts of the country.

Mostly cold and dry weather is expected in Punjab with light rainfall in upper parts till January 15. Dry weather has been forecast for the most parts of of Sindh. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, mainly cold and dry weather is expected with light rainfall with light snowfall over the hills in upper hilly areas till January 15. Widely cold and dry weather is expected in Balochistan with light to moderate rainfall and snowfall over hills in northwest of the province till January 15.

Mainly cold and cloudy weather is expected in most parts of Gilgit-Baltistan with light to moderate rain with snowfall till January 15. Weather in Kashmir is expected to remain mainly cold and dry weather in most parts of the valley with light-to-moderate rain with light snowfall over the hills till January 15.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016