Pakistan is expecting bumper output from Kharif crops including rice 6.5 million tons, cotton 15-16 million bales, sugarcane 65 million tons and maize 4.5 million tons, officials at Ministry of Food and Agriculture (Minfa) said. Sources in Minfa told Business Recorder here on Saturday that rice would be cultivated on 5 million acres, cotton on 9 million acres, sugarcane on 2.2 million acres and maize on 3 million acres.
They said that devolution of Agriculture Ministry would ruin the agricultural economy of Pakistan, adding that across the world agriculture is a federal subject. The most affected subjects after devolution would be research and development, food security and value addition sectors.
Sources said that this year the government was unable to convene the meeting of federal committee on agriculture, which sets Kharif crops production target. But officials believe that Pakistan's main crops including rice, sugarcane and cotton production would register a significant increase in output due to better moisture level in soil. Farmers across the country have brought more land under cultivation of cotton as price of the commodity over the year has increased manifold.
The government should retain the Agriculture Ministry at federal level as three out of four provinces of the country are not able to meet the food demand of their people and they have to rely on Punjab, sources said. In the absence of the Ministry severe food security issues would arise, therefore federal level department tackling food security issues and international co-operation should be at federal level, they added.
Last year the country exported billions of dollars of agriculture products, besides exporting value added textile products worth $12.5 billion against set target of $14 billion. Pakistan last year exported agriculture products worth Rs 288.18 billion ($3.35 billions) including food grains, vegetables, fruits, tobacco, fisheries products, spices and livestock, officials said.
According to Minfa officials, Pakistan exported fruits amounting to Rs 20 billion, Rs 19 billion fisheries products, Rs 1.15 billion tobacco/tobacco products, Rs 180 billion rice including Basmati and Irri-6, Rs 10 billion vegetables, Rs 10 billion livestock and meat products, Rs 2.25 billion spices, Rs 13.78 billion oilseeds/nuts and Rs 32 billion other agri products to different countries in 2009-10.
Agriculture sector of Pakistan accounts for over 21 percent of GDP and is the primary supplier of raw material to the downstream industry and therefore contributes substantially to Pakistan's exports besides absorbing 45 percent of the total labour force.
Provinces are unable to tackle entire sector as excluding some regions of Punjab all the other regions/provinces do not have sufficient agriculture related infrastructure. Minfal officials said that this year overall wheat production in the country may cross the projected target of 25 million tons at around 25.5 to 26 million tons.
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