ISLAMABAD, April 4: The yields of wheat, cotton and sugarcane in the country have remained short of target in the current fiscal year, says the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA). A major setback came from wheat output. Despite official estimates of a bumper crop, its output fell short of target by 1.5 million tons and stood at 20.5 million tons against a target of 22 million tons.
“The production of wheat could be around 20.5 million tons this year compared to the last year’s achieved production of 21.6 million tons,” said Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan.
Briefing reporters after a meeting of the FCA, the minister said the major factor for lower wheat production was ‘some problems’ which the crop had faced in Punjab.
He said the cotton production stood at 13 million bales against a target of 15 million bales. He pointed out that although lower than the target, the output was highest ever achieved by the country.
The sugarcane production for the year has been estimated at 44.23 million tons against a target of 48 million tons.
The production of potato has been estimated at 1.6 million tons against the target of 1.7 million tons. The gram output has been estimated at 458,000 tons, showing a reduction of about 47 per cent over the last year’s production.
The minister said the rice crop had been estimated at 5.422 million tons from an area of 2.575 million hectares, showing an improvement of eight per cent over the last year’s production of five million tons.
The meeting estimated the maize crop at 3.276 million tons registering an increase of 17 per cent over the last year’s production. The chilli crop has been estimated at 119,000 tons, showing an increase of 17 per cent over the last year’s output.
FUTURE TARGETS: The minister said the cotton crop target for the next year had been set at 13.816 million bales from an area of 3.247 million hectares.
The target for sugarcane was fixed at 50.5 million tons from an area of 1.005 million hectares. The rice target was set at 5.654 million tons from an area of 2.685 million hectares. Likewise, the maize crop target was fixed at 3.439 million tons from an area of 1.001 million hectares.
Mr Bosan said the FCA had reviewed the input situation for Kharif. The urea fertiliser availability for Kharif crops was estimated at 2.826 million tons.
According to the information provided by the Indus River System Authority, the water availability during Kharif is expected to be 71.86MAF (million acre feet) against the last year’s 70.76MAF.
The credit disbursement during July-February 2005-06 improved touching the level of Rs81 billion, showing an improvement of 21 per cent against disbursement of Rs67 billion in the same period last year.
In reply to a question, the minister said Indian market was the best option to import sugar.
