Dec 30, 2019: Wheat crop sowing in the country witnessed about 1.115 percent increase as compared to cultivation during same period last year as crop had been cultivated over an area of of 7.884 million hectares of land as compared the sowing of 7.797 million hectares of same period of last year.

According to the initial data received from the provincial governments of current season (2019-20), during current month crop sowing had been completed over 87 percent area as against the set targets.

It was expected to further strengthened as grain sowing in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan had witnessed tremendous increase, said Food Security Commissioner Dr Imtiaz Ali Gopang.

While talking to APP here on Monday he said wheat sowing in Sindh increased by 27 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by 5.3 percent and Balochistan by 16.08 percent respectively.

However, wheat sowing in Punjab during the period under review remained sluggish as it went down by 2.71 percent as compared the sowing of same period of last year, he said adding, delay in wheat sowing in province were late start of sugarcane crushing and some other issues.

Meanwhile, availability of irrigation water, in time harvesting of cotton crop particularly in lower Sindh, timely start of sugarcane crushing in the province augmented the crop sowing and overall increased the area under wheat cultivation, he added.

Food Security Commissioner said price trend of the commodity in the local market, especially in Karachi and Hyderabad were the other reasons behind the encouraging crop sowing trend, he added.

Wheat sowing in Punjab was completed by 91 percent as the crop had cultivated over 6.019 million hectares as against the target of 6.650 million hectares, he said adding that Sindh completed 70 percent as crop had been sown over 0.805 million hectares as against the set target of 1.1500 million hectares.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, crop sowing was completed over 90 percent of the set targets as about 0.278 million hectares of land had put under the crop production, he said adding that in Balochistan it had been achieved by 60 percent and crop had been cultivated over 0.332 million hectares as against the set targets of 0.550 million hectares.

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