The country may face a water shortage during the current Kharif season that can hit hard Kharif crops like sugarcane. "The country will face water shortage during Kharif season due to less rains which may benefit some crops including cotton and will also negatively affect some crops like sugarcane," said Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan while addressing a press conference after presiding over a meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA).
He said that according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the country will receive below normal rainfall in the first quarter of Kharif season (from April to June) which may cause further drop in the air and soil moisture status over major agriculture plains.
However, he said that country has witnessed 17 percent above normal snowfall this year and its melting will help maintain water in canals. "Due to increase in temperature during summer season, snow melting in the northern areas will improve river flow," he said, adding that at present all the provinces are getting their intended supplies in the system.
About wheat production, the minister said that his ministry has not received final estimates of crops yet but according to different surveys and field visits, the country will achieve wheat production target of 26 million tons. He said that wheat production for 2016-17 is estimated at 26 million tons from an area of 9.0 million hectares. Coupled with the last year leftover stock of 4.3 million tons, the total availability of the wheat will be about 30.43 million tons which is well over and above the total national requirements, he added.
The minister said that the meeting reviewed the estimates for Rabi crops production and fixed targets for the Kharif season 2017-18. The meeting also reviewed agriculture input including fertiliser, water, seed and pesticides. He said that the estimated gram production target for 2017-18 is 357.7 thousand tons from areas of 935.5 thousand hectares reflecting a decrease of 42.2 percent from the target. The main reason behind decrease in production of gram is irregular rains, he elaborated.
Bosan said that the committee also discussed the production of other essential crops like lentil, potato, onion and tomato. He said that the committee fixed targets for Kharif corps including sugarcane, rice, maize, moong, mash, chillies and tomatoes. Bosan said that the committee has fixed sugarcane production target of 2017-18 at 68.2 million tons from an area of 1164.2 thousand hectares. The FCA also fixed the rice production target for 2017-18 at 6.8 million tons from 2,786 thousand hectare of land.
He said that the availability of rice and maize seed would be 96.45 percent and 96 percent respectively of the total seed requirements during the Karif season. The representative from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) informed that allocation of institutional credit for agriculture had substantially increased to Rs 700 billion for 2016-17 and the disbursement up to February 2017 is Rs 409.0 billion, which is 58.4 percent of the total target.
The representatives of provincial agriculture departments, SBP, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd, National Fertiliser Development Centre, Pakistan Meteorological Department, Indus River System Authority, Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board, Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation, Climate Change and Planning Commission of Pakistan, and senior officials of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research attended the meeting.
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