Current rain spell beneficial for sugarcane, banana crops

The current spell of rains will have positive effects on the major crops of the country, said officials of Food and Agriculture Ministry and growers. While talking to Business Recorder Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal Chairman AgriForum Pakistan said that the current spell of rains will prove helpful for the growers of rice crop, particularly in lower areas of the country, which earlier faced shortage of irrigation water during the sowing of paddy crop.
Following torrential rains, water level has improved significantly in various parts of the country and it will have positive effects on the production of sugar-cane, rice and other crops, Ibrahim added. Ibrahim Mughal was of the view that no grower was consulted in policy-making at any level and there were no precautionary measures at government level with respect to pest attacks especially Mealy Bug and CLCV.
He said the target of acreage was achieved and the crop was in better position but mealy bug attack destroyed the fields due to poor planning. "If favourable climatic conditions continue in coming months and crop remains safe from pest attack, then the country will produce a good rice crop as well as sugar-cane in the current season," he hoped.
Besides paddy, the growers are seeing current rains as good for other Kharif crops like sugarcane, banana, BT cotton as well as flowers. He maintained that rains for the cotton crop, which was at flowering stage, and a little more advanced in some parts of Punjab and Sindh, may be harmful, but it will not affect BT cotton.
He disclosed that BT cotton had been cultivated over an area of 8 million acres across the country, including where conventional cotton was not grown due to high moisture. He termed the current rain spell beneficial for sugarcane and banana crops, but predicted some harmful effects on onion and tomato.
He said that cash crops could not be re-cultivated once their sowing period passed compared to vegetable crops. New rice crop will take three to four months to arrive in the market. The Quality Review Committee (QRC) is scheduled to hold a meeting on Thursday (today) at the Export Promotion Bureau.
He said that the BT cotton seed imported from China, with tall claims that it would increase per acre production, proved fatal for Pakistan because it has no resistance against cotton leaf virus. Officials of Food and Agriculture Ministry said that the government has revised the cotton target to 12 million bales from 13.2 million bales for the Kharif 2009-10 after the virus attack on the crop in Punjab and Sindh.
"The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) after consultation with the farming community has revised the target to around 12 million bales, officials said. However Ibrahim Muhgal said that production of cotton crop would even remain below the revised target of 12 million bales set for Kharif 2009-10 season.