ISLAMABAD, July 14: Pakistan produced 19.7 million tons of wheat during 2003-04, which was short of the target by 0.3 million tons, according to the final estimates available from the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock.
The shortfall was due to the sudden increase in temperature in March when the grain was not yet ripe, sources told Dawn here on Wednesday. Apart from this momentary setback, the weather remained favourable with a significant overall improvement in water supply.
Thanks to this factor, the output of wheat in 2003-04 surpassed that of the previous year by approximately 0.5 million tons, they said. The national requirement of wheat during 2004-05 has been estimated by the ministry at 20.2 million tons.
After taking into account the carry forward of 0.16 million tons, Pakistan faces a shortfall of 0.4 million tons in the current year. It had, therefore, been decided to import one million tons of wheat. As a result, the country is expected to have surplus wheat to the extent of 0.6 million tons by the end of the current wheat year.
EXPORTS: The government had adopted the policy of exporting only wheat flour and its by-products. Thus in 2003-04, the quantity of wheat flour exported to Afghanistan and the UAE was 3.5 million tons.
Pakistan, the source said, had no real shortage of wheat in 2003-04. The problem arose owing to the failure of the Sindh government to convey its requirement to the centre. It did this in late October, 2003.
This year the federal government had received the estimates of the quantity of wheat to be required by Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan in 2004-05. Afghanistan, said the source, had only water-mills and no electrically operated flour mills. While that country had ample stocks of wheat, it had no option but to depend on import of flour.
OUTPUT: According to the details, only the NWFP surpassed the target of one million tons by 0.1 million tons during 2003-04. The size of the harvest in Punjab was 15.8 million tons as against the target of 16.00 million tons.
Sindh fell short of the target (2.3 million tons) by 0.1 million tons, while in Balochistan the output has been put at 0.6 million tons against the target of 0.7 million tons.
In comparison with 2002-03, Balochistan was the only province to show a reduction of 63,300 tons in 2003-04. All the other provinces improved their performance in terms of wheat harvest. They are: Punjab by 4,45,000 tons; Sindh by 90,000 tons; and the NWFP by 35,000 tons.
