Pakistan is likely to miss the cotton production target of 15 million bales set for 2012-13 and is likely to harvest no more than 13.5 million bales because of a decrease in sowing area as well as flash floods in major crop production areas of Sindh and Punjab.
"The country has cultivated cotton over 7 million hectares against a proposed target of 8 million hectares for 2012-2013," sources in the Ministry of Food Security and Research and Punjab and Sindh''s agriculture departments told Business Recorder. Sources said that in Punjab, cotton was cultivated over 5.5 million hectares against the proposed target of 6.3 million hectares for the current fiscal year. Punjab is likely to produce 9.5 million bales against estimated 10.5 million bales because of a considerable reduction in sowing area followed by recent flash flooding, they said.
In Sindh, cotton was cultivated on 1.3 million hectares against the target of 1.5 million hectares. Due to reduction in cotton sowing area and recent heavy rainfall, the province is likely to produce 4 million bales cotton against an estimated target of 5 million bales.
"Balochistan is likely to achieve its estimated target of 1,000 bales cotton product as cotton was sown on over 200,000 hectares area in the province," sources disclosed. The estimated target of cotton crop for 2011-12 was 15 million bales but crop damages in Sindh especially in Upper Sindh, the country would face a loss of about 2 million bales.
Pakistan produced 14.34 million bales in 2011-2012 with Punjab growing 11 million bales and the rest was produced in Sindh. Chairman of Pakistan Agri Forum Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal said that the cotton production target for 2012-2013 was likely to be missed by a million bales. He said that during the current fiscal year, cotton consumption would be around 14.5 millions bales. The estimated production of cotton would fulfil domestic requirements as 1.3 million cotton bales was already available in carryover stocks, he said.
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