ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy will get a boost as the production of four important crops as well as three minor crops posted a record production this season from a year ago, indicating a lesser reliance on imports of eatables in 2021-22.

Lower crop yield of cotton is mainly due to a decline in sowing area and climatic changes which badly hit standing crop.

The estimates were framed by the National Accounts Committee (NAC) on the basis of provincial crop estimates to review the gross domestic product for 2020-21. The figures were revised from earlier estimates showing positive growth over last year.

Cotton production fell by 22.78 per cent to 7.064 million bales against 9.148m bales over the corresponding year. As per the statistics, cotton was sown on 2.079m hectares compared to 2.517m hectares last year, showing a decline of 17.42pc.

For a number of years, cotton was considered the lifeline of Pakistan’s economy but the crop is now facing tough competition from sugarcane and international prices.

Cultivation area, barring cotton, increases in outgoing fiscal year

Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam in a press conference on Saturday said that massive drop in cotton yield is due to decline in Sindh. He said a 2.1m bales were received in Sindh as against the target of 4.5m bales.

Mr Imam said standing crop was damaged due to excessive rain. He said Punjab has received only 3.8m bales this year, which is lower than last year. “This is a setback for our economy,” he said, adding government will take several initiatives to achieve next year target.

The government has projected 10.5m bales target for 2021-22. “This is a very ambitious target”, he agreed but said the government has already released over Rs6bn to provinces to provide quality seeds, pesticides and fertilisers to improve crop production.

As per estimation, 57pc of cotton crop will originate from Punjab followed by 38pc from Sindh with KP and Balochistan contributing 5pc each. A sharp decline in cotton yield and cultivation was seen in Punjab during the last decade as sugarcane has replaced cotton as the cotton-growing built.

Mr Imam said quality seeds will also be provided for a better quality crop.

Cotton being an export-oriented raw material of over 450 textile industries, maintaining competitive prices with the international market and ensuring due profitability of growers has been a great challenge for policymakers and industries over the decade.

On the other hand, sugarcane production surged by 22.04pc to 81.009m tonnes in 2020-21 from 66.380m tonnes over the corresponding year.

Rising acreage for major crops

Sugarcane is cultivated at an area of 1.165m hectares in 2020-21 compared to 1.040m hectares, showing an increase of 12.05pc. One of the reasons is high demand and better price compared to cotton.

The production of wheat crop edged up by 8.10pc to 27.3 million tonnes against 25.248m tonnes last year. He said the government took several initiatives including providing certified quality seeds to farmers. As against the requirement of 1.1m tonnes, government provided over 0.5m tonnes of certified quality seeds this year.

Wheat was sown on 9.178m hectares compared to 8.805m hectares last year, showing an increase of 4.23pc.

He said his ministry has partially successful in track and trace of these seeds. He admitted that favourable weather conditions also contributed in wheat bumper crops. “This is a record high production”, he said.

The minister said that government imported 3.65m tonnes wheat last year. However, he said 4 m tonnes will be imported to build strategic reserves. “We have already approved import of 3m tonnes,” he said.

The rice crop was cultivated on an area of 3.335m hectares in 2020-21 compared to 3.034m hectares last year, showing an increase of 9.93pc. As a result of an increase in cultivation area, rice output grew 13.56pc to 8.419m tonnes in 2020-21 compared to 7.414m tonnes last year.

At the same time, maize cultivation area grew 0.97pc to 1.418m hectares in 2020-21 compared to 1.404m hectares last year. The yield of maize crop witnessed a growth of 7.38pc to 8.465m tonnes in 2020-21 against 7.883m tonnes last year.

The monthly outlook of the finance ministry shows that fertilisers off-take during October-March 2020-21 was 3.2m tonnes, which was 12.3pc higher from last year while offtake of DAP was higher by 2.4pc to 1.1m tonnes. It clearly shows a substantial increase in an uptick in input utilisation is very encouraging.

Agriculture exports

Mr Imam said that mango exports reached to 141,500 tonnes in 2020-21 against 110,000 tonnes last year, an increase of 28.6pc.

He said his ministry took several measures to promote its exports from the country.

Similarly, Pakistan exports of citrus reached 462,000 tonnes in 2020-21 against 352,000 tonnes last year, an increase of 31.25pc. “This is a huge achievement”, he said. He said UK and Norway lifted the ban on import of citrus from Pakistan this year. The ban was imposed in 2014 owing to quality issues on citrus and guavas.

The potatoes exports posted a growth of 28pc. He said potatoes products increased to 5.4m tonnes against 4.4m tonnes last year, an increase of 22.7pc. He said production of onion was recorded at 2.3m tons while moong yield at 0.2m tonnes this year.

In the livestock, he said focus will be on breeding, feeding and health. “We will take measures to attract foreign investments in the livestock to encourage value-addition”, he said. The focus will be on milk and meat.

Mr Imam said government will extend Kissan Cards to maximum farmers especially the small ones. He said Punjab has 5.4m farmers against 8.2m farmers across the country. He said cards are only distributed in two to three districts.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2021