ISLAMABAD, June 11: The government says it has achieved this year’s cotton and sugarcane sowing targets, made possible by high temperature that melted down snow on mountains and occasional rains over the past one month in spite of looming drought conditions in Sindh and Balochistan.

“We have achieved the 3.2 million hectares sowing target for cotton and one million hectares for sugarcane”, Dr Qadir Bakhsh Baloch, agriculture development commissioner of the federal ministry of food, agriculture and livestock told Dawn here on Sunday.

Answering a question, he said sowing seasons would be completed by the end of this month. Though the sowing started with a 10-day delay, targets for the two major crops have been achieved. Sugarcane sowing was still in progress in Sindh, Punjab and the NWFP and cotton throughout the country, which had put the government in a good position to surpass the targets, he added.

The performance of the agriculture sector remained weak last year as it grew by only 2.5 per cent against 6.7 per cent in 2004-05 and 4.2 per cent target for the year with major crops and forestry registering negative growth. Agriculture contributed only 8 per cent to the GDP growth last year compared to previous year’s 18 per cent.

Dr Baloch said soaring temperature caused the snow to melt rapidly, which increased water availability in dams. This was accompanied by some rains helping farmers to sow the two major crops almost on time.

On May 7, the Pakistan meteorological department had warned of a possible drought in the country with no signs of any significant rainfall over the next two months and water levels in Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs dropping to critical points.

The drought was feared to hit Sindh and Balochistan first. Dr Bakhsh said: “We cannot intervene in nature and stop rains or make them happen. But, we are well placed for achieving a good crop at the end”.

He said other factors which would contribute to achieving the production target for cotton and sugar included ability of the government to provide cheaper and good quality inputs and technology and active participation of farmers to take care of their crops.

Last year’s cotton sowing and production targets were 3.247 million hectares and 15 million bales, respectively. The crop, however, was sown on 3.096 million hectares, 4.6 percent less than the target and 3 per cent less than last year’s 3.193 million hectares. Cotton was estimated at 12.417 million bales for 2005-06, 13 per cent less than last year’s production of 14.265 million bales.

Dr Baloch said 350,000 hectares on which cotton had been sown in the Kutchi area of Sindh was swift away by floods last year that badly damaged the overall production.

Last year’s sugarcane sowing target was 955,000 hectares as against 966,000 the year before. However, the crop was sown on over 907,000 hectares, five per cent below the target and 6.1 per cent less than the year before.

Sugarcane production was 44.3 million tons last year against 47.2 million tons the year before. Low production was one of the causes of recent sugar crisis, besides the sugar cartel.