ISLAMABAD: With bright prospects of availability of water for Kharif season beginning next month, the shortage of five to eight per cent would be balanced through efficient use of the canal system, Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan said on Friday.

Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA), he said the present trend of river flows would have a positive impact on the Kharif crops and efforts would be made to use full potential of available water to increase agricultural production.

According to the data presented at the FCA meeting, he said, the total water availability for the season had been anticipated at 108.15 million acres feet (MAF).

As much as 26.76MAF water is expected to be available at the beginning of the season and the amount is likely to rise to 81.4MAF later.

At the beginning of the Rabi season, the anticipated water shortage was 15 per cent. But after a review of the position of reservoirs and snowfall, the prediction of the shortage was reduced to seven per cent.

Given the available water, Mr Bosan said, the country was expected to achieve the wheat production target of 25.33 million tons from an area of more than nine million hectares.

According to estimates made by the provincial crop reporting centres, the crop has been cultivated on an area of 9.03m hectares against the target of 8.94m hectares, showing an increase of 4.32 per cent over last year’s area.

The FCA meeting, presided over by the minister, fixed the production targets of sugarcane and rice, the principal crops of Kharif season, for 2014-15.

For sugarcane production, the target was set at 68.8m tons from an area of 1.17m hectares. The rice production target was set at 6.8m tons from an area of 2.8m hectares.

The meeting also discussed the crops of maize, mash, chillies and tomato.

A review of sugarcane crop for 2013-14 showed that sugarcane area and production had registered an increase. Major increase in the production took place in Sindh because of cultivation of sugarcane in the area known for cotton crop.

Another reason was an increase in the demand for sugarcane created by new sugar mills in the province. But the area and production remained almost stagnant in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Latest projections show that rice production at the national level is estimated at 6.71m tons in 2013-14, 21.3 per cent higher than last year’s production of 5.53m tons.

At the meeting, representatives of provincial agriculture departments called for ensuring adequate supply of urea and phosphate fertilisers during the Kharif season to achieve crop production targets.

The meeting was told that availability of urea and DAP would be ensured during the season as per requirements.

It was informed that four per cent more fertiliser would be required this year as compared to last year.

The minister said the production of gram would fall by 15 per cent this year due to less than normal rainfall across the country. But there would be no shortage of gram in the country because the government did not allow export of gram from last year’s crop.

Representatives of banks said that allocations of credit for agriculture sector had been increased by 13 per cent this year as compared to last year.

A review of agricultural credit shows that against the target of Rs380 billion for 2013-14, the banks disbursed Rs189.9bn between July and January which is 50 per cent of the target. A major share of the amount — Rs162.7bn — was disbursed in Punjab.

The FCA had decided to hold a meeting after every three months, the minister added.