Around a decade ago, Abdul Rehman Arain, a small farmer from Matiari, grew wheat for income generation in the Rabi season for the last time. Since then, he prefers mustard cultivation, an oilseed crop, on his seven acres of land, as he finds it easier to grow than wheat.
“Now I grow wheat only for the household’s flour requirements. Mustard is easy to handle and offers better returns than grain,” he shared. For him, mustard isn’t as high maintenance as wheat and “doesn’t require heavy inputs either”.
He felt that getting an adequate price for wheat has become increasingly difficult nowadays, whereas mustard, with lesser input costs, ensures either equal or impressive returns. He got a price of Rs7,000 per 40kg for mustard and had around 40–45 maunds per acre two years back. Only last year, he sold 40kg of mustard for Rs4,000–4,500 — a time when grain was sold for Rs2,200 per 40kg in the absence of support prices.
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