Pakistan. Wheat production estimated at 25.16 million tons

The government has estimated the country’s wheat production at 25.16 million tons in the 2018-19 Rabi crop sowing season.

The estimate came in a meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA), chaired by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Muhammad Mahboob Sultan.

The FCA, which was tasked with overseeing strategic measures to ensure food security in the country, reviewed harvests of Rabi crops and fixed targets for 2019-20 Kharif crops.

Among Rabi crops, the committee noted that wheat production in the 2018-19 season was estimated as on April 7, 2019 at 25.16 million tons from an area of 8.83 million hectares.

Coupled with last year’s leftover stock of 3 million tons, the total wheat availability will be about 28.16 million tons, which is well above the annual national requirement.

The committee was informed that gram production in 2018-19 had been estimated at 439,000 tons from an area of 943,700 hectares. It also discussed the production of other essential crops like lentil, potato, onion and tomato.

The committee set the target of cotton production at 15 million bales in the Kharif season.

It held comprehensive deliberations on production targets for essential Kharif crops and decided that 2.895 million hectares would be planted with the cotton crop in 2019-20 to achieve harvest of 15 million bales. For the rice crop, the production target was set at 7.433 million tons from an area of 2.88 million hectares.

Targets for other crops such as maize, moong, mash and chilli were also fixed. It set the production target for sugarcane at 68.583 million tons by cultivating the crop over an area of 1.184 million hectares.

Discussing the supply of agricultural inputs for Kharif crops, the committee was informed that sufficient water would be available in the reservoirs. In the 2019-20 crop season, 108.67 million acre feet (maf) of water would be available in canals compared to 88.04 maf last year. At present, all the provinces are getting satisfactory water supply.

The Meteorological Department told the FCA that normal to slightly above normal rainfall was likely in May across the country. However, based on a gradual increase in temperature, an effective use of available water stock was recommended, it said.

Average temperature is likely to remain above normal throughout the country during the period. The expected rise in temperature in the next two months is approximately 1 to 2-degree Celsius.

“The rise in temperature will accelerate the melting of snow in northern areas and water flow will subsequently increase in the upper Indus region,” it said.

Pakistan’s wheat production likely to hit five-year low

The committee was informed that the supply of rice and maize seeds would be higher than the country’s requirement, which was estimated at 121.28% and 112.83% respectively.

The representative of the State Bank revealed that the allocation of institutional credit for the agriculture sector had been increased substantially to Rs1,250 billion for fiscal year 2018-19 and disbursements up to February 2019 were calculated at Rs701.6 billion.

The disbursements accounted for 56.1% of the annual target and were 23.1% higher than disbursements of Rs570.9 billion in the same period of previous year.

The FCA appreciated the positive impact of fertiliser subsidy scheme, which contributed to a high yield and noted that the supply of urea and di-ammonium phosphate was satisfactory in the Rabi season.

Owing to domestic fertiliser production and available stocks, the urea supply would remain comfortable and DAP would also be at satisfactory levels, the FCA noted.

tribune.com.pk