ISLAMABAD, May 23: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz here on Monday set the 15 million bales cotton target for next season and directed the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) to devise a well-coordinated plan to achieve the challenging figure. Mr Aziz was presiding over a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Agriculture which was told that the recent prolonged rains had caused losses to wheat crop being estimated between 100,000 and 4,000 tons.

The prime minister was informed that the wheat crop latest estimates were 21.4 million tons, but the final estimates could not be available before the middle of next month, when threshing would be completed in all the four provinces. However, the committee was informed that Minfal was sure that the final figures of wheat crop would be more than the earlier target of 20.2 million tons. However, after the damages done by the rains, it seemed impossible to achieve the promising target of 22 million tons for the current season.

The meeting also discussed the repeated complaints about the hike in the price of fertilizers in various provinces and the hindrances in the smooth supply of the commodity to the farmers.

It was told that enforcement of laws was purely a provincial subject. That’s why, Mr Aziz directed the provinces to ensure the availability of fertilizers at one price throughout the country. He also asked the authorities concerned to import 100,000 tons of fertilizers as soon as possible to stabilize the situation.

The committee was informed that the national average price of wheat flour had declined more than 5 per cent due to the arrival of the fresh wheat crop. The current price of wheat was 4 per cent lower compared to the corresponding period last year, the authorities claimed.

Minfal authorities also claimed that there had been an additional flow of income of Rs60 billion in the rural areas as a result of the significant growth in the wheat production and higher returns of Rs400 per 40-kg to the growers. The growth would help reduce rural poverty, the officials claimed.

The meeting was informed that so far the Punjab Food Department and Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation had procured 50 per cent of wheat in Punjab. In the first 10 months of the current year agricultural credits totalling Rs83 billion had been disbursed among the farmers against the annual target of Rs85 billion, the committee was told.

The committee reiterated that there was no restriction on the inter-provincial and inter-district movement of wheat throughout the country which had helped stabilize the price of wheat flour.