Dawn file photo
ALL major food crops are doing well at the same time after a gap of many years. The trend could be sustained by investing more in conducting production and productivity research.
According to the latest brief of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, the output of wheat, rice, sugarcane and maize increased in the outgoing crop year despite water shortage.
Two factors have been driving the production of key crops. First, more land is being brought under cultivation of these crops, and second, their yields are also rising, thanks to the development of new seed varieties in the recent past and the adoption of better farming techniques, food ministry officials say.
Exporters say we must have a larger base of surplus of grains to give an immediate boost to food exports in the near future alongside working on accelerating value-addition
That is why the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) has set higher production targets for major and minor Rabi food crops for 2017-18, despite having factored in the possible negative impact of water shortage.
During a recent meeting, the FCA noted that in the 2017-18 crop calendar the output of rice, sugarcane and maize has been estimated at 7.3 million tonnes, 81.4m tonnes and 5.3m tonnes, respectively.
According to FCA sources, a measured increase in the area under cultivation of the above crops and a scientifically projected rise in yields have formed the basis for the above output projections that are higher than their actual production in 2016-17, except in case of maize.
They say that in 2017-18, per-hectare yields of rice and sugarcane have been estimated at 2.53m tonnes and 62m tonnes, up from 2.51m tonnes and 60.48m tonnes in 2016-17. However, the yield for maize crop has been projected to fall slightly to 4.27m tonnes per hectare next year from 4.59m tonnes this year.
The hopes for higher yields of rice and sugarcane are not misplaced, as during the past few years, some high-yielding new varieties of paddy and sugarcane have become popular among growers.
On the other hand, a rather cautious projection has been made about maize yield as no breakthrough has been recorded of late regarding the development of maize seed variety. Its production hit an all-time high of 6.13m tonnes in 2016-17 largely due to a big increase in the area under cultivation at the cost of wheat.
However, wheat output recorded a modest 0.5 per cent rise in 2016-17 despite shrinkage in the area under sowing, as its per-hectare yield went up due to the use of high-yield varieties and improvement in ways of wheat farming.
The FCA has fixed wheat production target for 2017-18 at 26.46m tonnes, up from 25.75m tonnes in 2016-17. The production target has been fixed higher purely on the basis of an increase in the yield as the area under cultivation for wheat is expected to shrink marginally to 8.95m hectares during 2017-18 from 9.05m hectares in 2016-17.