Wheat harvesting picks up pace in Amritsar

Harvesting has picked up the pace in the district with nearly one lakh metric tonnes of wheat produce reaching the markets. With most of the crop ready for harvesting, combine harvesters have started operations in fields.

District agriculture officials stated that nearly 95 per cent of the crop would be harvested by the end of the week as the farmers are in a hurry to harvest the crop to avoid any mishappening like fire.

The crop has been cultivated on nearly 1.80 lakh hectares of land in the district. Officials of the district mandi are expecting a total of nearly nine lakh metric tonnes of crop to reach the markets before the end of the season.

Gurbinder Singh, an arhtiya, said, “The harvesting of the crop is going on at full speed for the last two days. The rush at the markets has already increased and labour is working day and night to weigh and fill the bags.” He said most of the crop coming to the markets is dry but in some cases, the problem of excess moisture is faced.

To protect the wheat crop from fires due to short circuits from electricity wires, the power corporation had earlier started applying power cuts in rural areas during the daytime. The officials said loose wires or faulty equipment can cause sparks which can lead to fire.

Amritsar