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ISLAMABAD, March 5: Farmers are increasingly shifting their cropping pattern in favour of sunflower and canola due to persistent problems with the production of sugarcane, it is indicated by record increase in their acreage in the current year.
According to the latest figures available from the Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board (PODB), an area of 4,74,141 acres had already been sown, denoting over 11 per cent increase over the previous year.
PODB chairman Abdul Rauf Khan while talking to Dawn expected the acreage to go up still more because while sowing is already complete in Sindh, full statistics were still awaited from the other provinces.
As the acreage has surpassed the target of 400,000 acres, there was shortage of sunflower sowing seed that is imported entirely by transnational corporations from the US and Australia where the production had been hit by bad weather.
The shortage situation was complicated further by the local traders and influential feudal lords who hoarded and then sold the seed in black market.
Apart from the problems of late start of crushing operations and the withholding of payment for sugarcane by sugar mills, sunflower has an edge over it because it requires less water. Moreover, it is a comparatively short-gestation crop requiring only four months to mature in.
The response in Sindh was particularly stimulating. The acreage in the province has shot up by over 85 per cent over the past three years and now stands at 230,516 acres, as against the target of 180,000 acres.
The target in Punjab was 200,000 acres and the area sown to sunflower so far is 239,875 acres, denoting an increase of 11.9pc.
PRICE: The All Pakistan Solvent Extraction Association (APSEA) has fixed the minimum price of sunflower seed at Rs630 per 40 kg. Due to the increased demand, its price, however, ranged between Rs750 to Rs800.
In reply to a question, the PODB chairman said the era when the growers found it difficult to market their produce was now history. Not a single grain now remained unsold. While the considerations of health were major reason for the increasing demand for sunflower and canola, the exemption from sales tax, now applicable to imported oilseeds, rendered it more attractive to the market.
Tentatively, the sunflower acreage in 2004-05 was targeted to reach the 600,000 figure. In view of the quantum jump in 2003-04, the PODB was considering raising it to 700,000 next year.
CANOLA: Considered the oil with nutritional value as high as 93 per cent and surpassing all other oils, canola was targeted to be cultivated over 250,000 acres in 2003-04. The latest figures, however, show the actual acreage as 265,000 acres. This is 19 per cent more than the acreage during 2002-03.
Of this, 177,787 acres have been sown to canola in Punjab, 18,645 in Sindh, 15,510 in NWFP, 26,667 in Balochistan and 26,480 in Pothwar. Only Sindh was short of the target by nearly seven per cent.
The problem with canola, according to PODB sources, was that it was a long gestation crop with a gap of seven months between sowing and harvesting. As in the case of sunflower, the canola production is entirely based on imported seed: Rs150 per kg for normal seed and Rs400 per kg for the hybrid one, as against the cost of local mustard: around Rs15 per kg.
Another problem, they said, was that the pods of canola shatter on ripening, spreading the seeds over a wide area, making it very difficult to recover a large proportion of the product.
The domestic edible oil production, the PODB chief said, accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the total consumption in Pakistan. Asked as to the reason for substantial increase in import of soyabean oil over the past year, he said this was due to limited capacity of the solvent industry in Pakistan. Out of 64 mills, 54 were functioning with the total capacity of 2.6 million tons per year.
