MULTAN, Pakistan: Overnight rain received in different parts of South Punjab would prove beneficial for wheat crop passing through last critical stage of grain filling and ripening, agriculture spokesman said on Friday.
The Assistant Director Agriculture Information Naveed Asmat Kahlon told the state-run news agency that wheat crop was in dire need of water and the rain proved to be a timely intervention following hot weather conditions that prevailed in South Punjab during last two weeks.
Rain extended three-fold benefit to farmers, Kahlon said adding that it saved their cost on irrigation, fixed Nitrogen from air to plants, and also proved fatal for Aphid wherever it was attacking the wheat crop.
The spokesman said that air contains almost 78 per cent of Nitrogen and rain fixes it into leaf thus meeting plants’ Nitrogen requirement where soil was deficient in Nitrogen.
It would also give more vigour to photosynthesis i.e food formation process in plants.
Experts usually advise farmers to spray cold water on crop by a power sprayer to make Aphid fall down and die. Rain did it for farmers instead wherever it dropped on wheat crop, he added.