MUSCAT: The expected production of the wheat crop for this season in farms in the Najd area in the Wilayat of Thumrait in the Dhofar Governorate is approximately 1,500 tons, an increase of more than 1000 tons over the last season.

The wheat harvest for this season has begun for 35 farms with an area of 1,547 feddans (a unit of area), with an increase in the cultivated area by 61 percent over last season due to its nutritional and economic importance.

Engineer Rashid bin Saeed Al Ghafri, Director-General of the General Directorate of Agricultural, Fisheries and Water Resources in the Governorate of Dhofar, said in a statement to the Oman News Agency: The cultivated area of the wheat crop was 600 acres last season, and this season it increased to 1,547 acres.

Al-Ghafri pointed out that the cultivation of the wheat crop is spreading at a large pace in the Najd region as a result of the efforts made by the ministry to encourage farmers to expand their strategic cultivations to achieve the objectives of the Oman 2040 vision in the field of achieving food security.

Al-Ghafri explained that the improved local varieties of the wheat crop are (Qurayyat 227, 226, 308, 110 and “Cole type”). The Ministry is supporting 50% of the value of the improved wheat seed for a number of farmers, in addition to providing wheat harvesting equipment and coordinating with the Omani Mills Company to receive Produced by farmers.

He said, “The Najd area in the Dhofar Governorate is considered one of the most promising areas in reclaiming wheat cultivation due to the availability of water, the quality of the soil and the appropriate climate, noting that wheat tops the list of strategic food crops in the world, and its cultivation occupies 28 percent of the total grain area in the world, and is the main food for more than half of the world’s population.”

The Director-General of the General Directorate of Agricultural and Fisheries Wealth and Water Resources in the Governorate of Dhofar added that the Sultanate of Oman has followed an approach that seeks to expand the cultivation of the wheat crop by developing the cultivated varieties, improving local varieties and studying new varieties suitable for the agricultural environment in the Sultanate of Oman.

The production of the wheat crop in the Sultanate of Oman during the agricultural season 2020/2021 amounted to 2,649 tons, an increase of 19 percent, while the total lands planted with wheat last season amounted to 2,449 acres, recording an increase of 19.6 percent.