Pakistan's wheat output falls short of target, exceeds last year

April 25, 2024 (MLN): While reviewing the performance of the Rabi crops (2023-24), a high-powered Federal Committee of Agriculture (FCA) on Thursday observed that Wheat production for 2023-24 is estimated at 29.69 million tons from an area of 9.6m hectares, 7.8% lower than target but 5.4% higher over the last year.

Onion production for 2023-24 is estimated at 1.92m tons from an area of 122,000 hectares, the increase in production is 3.9%, whereas, the area decreased 5.4% over the last year.

Tomato production for 2023-24 is estimated at 627,470 tons from an area of 50,900 hectares. The increase in production is 3.9% whereas, the area decreased 0.3% over the last year.

The potato production for 2023-24 is estimated at 8.1m tons from an area of 300,000 hectares, increase in this case is 27.9% over the target assigned by last FCA.

The current government has prioritized agriculture to boost up country’s economy and uplift the livelihood of people.

The FCA held detailed deliberations over the production targets for essential Kharif crops 2024-25 and decided to fix the production target of cotton at 10.8m bales whereas, an 8.7m tons production target for Rice over 3.1m hectares of land.

Maize target is fixed at 9.3m tons production target over 1.5m hectares of land.

The Committee also fixed the production target (2024-25) of sugarcane at 76.7m tons over an area of 1.3m hectares.

The targets for other crops such as Mung, Mash and Chilies were also fixed.

Pondering over the availability of agricultural inputs for Kharif crops (2024), the water availability in canals head will remain 63.61m acres feet (MAF) as against last year which was 61.85 MAF.

At present all the provinces are getting their satisfactory supplies in the system.

The meteorological department informed that from April to June 2024, normal to slightly above normal precipitation is expected in most parts of the country particularly over upper Punjab during the season from May to July 2024.

The tendency of above normal precipitation is likely to prevail in the month of August and September 2024. Area weighted normal rainfall of Pakistan during the monsoon season is 140.8 mm.

It is also informed that sufficient water will be available for irrigation and power sectors.

The Director General (FSC&RD) informed the house that seeds of Rice, Maize, Sesam and Mung Bean will remain available as per requirement.

The representative from the State Bank of Pakistan informed that allocations of institutional credit for agriculture had substantially increased to Rs2250 billion for 2023-24 and the disbursement up to February 2023 is Rs1,073.5bn which is 59% of overall annual target of Rs1,819bn which is 28.5% higher than the disbursement of Rs835.3bn made during last year.

The FCA directed to concerned departments to remain vigilant to balance the supply and demand situation of fertilizer for quick decisions to make imports to meet the domestic requirement during the coming kharif season.

At the end, the Committee expressed satisfaction over the food security situation in the country however, emphasized the need for research & development as well as better coordination to consolidate the gains and ensure further progress of the sector.

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