Daily Times

Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) was apprised that owing to the incentives introduced by the incumbent government to mitigate the adverse impact of catastrophic floods and torrential rains during the last moon soon season and to revive the local agriculture sector, the output of Rabi crops witnessed significant growth. The FCA which met with Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research Zafar Hassan was told that wheat output during the Rabi season 2022-23 increased by 1.6 per cent as compared to the production of last year and total output was estimated at 26.81 million tons. The high-power committee which, is mandated to oversee strategic measures for ensuring food security in the country was apprised that wheat crop was sown over 9.0 million hectares to fulfil the local staple food requirements as well as for keeping the strategic reserves. While, the committee observed that the potato production during the season grew by 1.9% as compared to the output of last year, whereas the total production was recorded at 7.9 million tons. During the season the potatoes were cultivated on over 0.3 million hectares. The tomato production for 2022-23 is estimated at 563.6 thousand tons from an area of 45.7 thousand hectares, there is an increase in production of 1.2% over the last year, whereas the gram production is estimated at 313 thousand tons from an area of 820.6 thousand hectares. Due to rains and floods in July-September 2022, and other climatic changes, local onion production during Rabi 2022-23 reported a decrease over the last year. To overcome this shortage duty-free imports of onion and tomatoes were also allowed so that there is no shortage in the market and prices remain stable. The FCA held detailed deliberations over the production targets for essential Kharif crops 2023-24 and fixed rice production targets at 9 million by sowing the crop on over 3.1 million hectares of land. Meanwhile, the FCA also fixed maize production targets at 7.6 million tons by bringing over 1.3 million hectares of land under maize cultivation, whereas the sugarcane production targets were fixed at 78.6 million tons by growing it on over an area of 1.2 million hectares. Pondering over the availability of agricultural inputs for Kharif crops (2023), the water availability in canals head will remain at 62.74 million acres feet (MAF) as against last year which was 43.27 MAF. At present all the provinces are getting their satisfactory supplies in the system.