Provincial Minister for Agriculture Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh has said that due to special interest taken by Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and provision of maximum facilities to the farmers, a record production of wheat, rice, maize, potato and sugarcane has been achieved in the province.
He was talking to media here Thursday. He said that wheat production, which was 15.6 million tons in 2007-08, rose to 18.4 million tons in 2008-09 and 17.9 million tons in 2009-2010, reached the figure of 19 million tons in 2010-11. It was a record in the history of the province.
The minister said that similarly the rice production, which was 3.286 million tons in 2007-08 rose to 3.643 million tons in 2008-09 reached the record level of 3.713 million tons in 2009-10. He said in 2010-11, 3.384 million tons rice was produced. Minister of Agriculture said that a record production of 40.28 million tons sugarcane has been achieved in 2011-12. He further said that a record production of 2.959 million tons maize and 3.340 million tons potato was achieved in 2010-11.
In reply to a question, the Agriculture Minister said that due to suspension of gas supply to urea factories, a crisis was created and the urea price which was Rs 850 per bag last year rose to Rs 1800 per bag this year, while DAP was sold at 4100 to 4200 rupees per bag.
He said that despite repeated reminders of Punjab government, the federal government started import of fertiliser very late, which resulted in a severe shortage of urea in the country. The minister said that during Rabi 2011-12 sowing in the months of October, November, December and January, Punjab needed 1.9 million tons of urea but only 1.511 million tons urea was available for sowing the winter crops, while 0.387 million tons of DAP fertiliser was with the stockists against the total requirement of 0.559 million tons. This situation caused a serious impact on production of crops, he said.
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