Rabi گندم

Wheat

The backbone of national food security and the largest Rabi crop.

Season: Rabi
Sowing: Oct – Dec
Harvest: Apr – May
Duration: ~150 days

Grown in: Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan. Windows are indicative and shift with district, altitude and season.

Overview

Why wheat matters

Wheat is Pakistan’s principal food grain and the dominant Rabi crop, grown across the irrigated plains of Punjab and Sindh and in the rain-fed (barani) belts of Potohar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Yield is decided largely by sowing date, seed rate and the first irrigation.

A combine harvester cutting a standing wheat crop

Growing conditions

Climate and soil

Climate

Cool, dry growing season with 10–25 °C during vegetative growth. Grain filling suffers sharply above 32 °C, so late sowing carries a heat-stress penalty.

Soil

Well-drained loam to clay loam, pH 6.5–8.0. Avoid waterlogged and heavily saline patches; reclaim with gypsum where sodicity is diagnosed.

Planting & sowing

Optimum sowing 1–20 November in irrigated Punjab; up to early December in Sindh. Seed rate 50 kg per acre for timely sowing, raised to 60 kg for late sowing. Drill in rows 22.5 cm apart at 4–5 cm depth.

Irrigation

Four to five irrigations. The crown-root initiation irrigation at 20–25 days after sowing is the single most yield-critical; follow at tillering, jointing, booting and grain filling.

Fertilisation

Typical schedule 55 kg N, 45 kg P₂O₅ and 25 kg K₂O per acre. Apply all phosphorus and potash plus one third of nitrogen at sowing; split the remaining nitrogen across the first two irrigations. Confirm against a soil test.

Harvesting

Harvest at physiological maturity when grain moisture falls to 20 % and straw yellows, generally April in Sindh and mid-April to May in Punjab. Delay invites shattering losses.

Crop protection