Govt sets 33.58Mt wheat target

ISLAMABAD: The government has set a wheat production target of 33.58 million tons for the Rabi Season 2024-2025 from 10.368 million hectares of land.

The decision was made during a meeting of the Federal Committee of Agriculture (FCA) for the Rabi season, presided over by the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (MNF&R), Rana Tanveer Hussain.

The committee reviewed the performance of Kharif Crops (2025-25) and set production targets for Rabi Crops (2025-2025), he said.

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According to a senior official, the government proposed a wheat production target of 33.58 million tons from the target area of 10.368 million hectares to attain self-sufficiency.

However, the provinces came up with lower targets for production. According to provincial governments’ proposals, the target area for wheat will be 9.263 million hectares with a production of 27.92 million tons.

He said the meeting urged the provincial governments to implement effective measures to meet the federal government targets and ensure sufficient wheat supply for the upcoming year.

The FCA also set production targets for various other crops: gram (419.4 thousand tons), potatoes (6.83 million tons), onions (2.55 million tons), tomatoes (658.7 thousand tons), and chilies (56.8 thousand tons).

The official said the meeting also reviewed the performance of Kharif Crops (2024-25) and was informed that sugarcane production for 2024-25 is provisionally estimated at 85.5 million tons from an area of 1.193 million hectares, showing an increase of 4.3 percent and 11.5 percent in area and production respectively over the targets fixed by the FCA.

He said that rice production for 2024-25 was estimated at 9.079 million tons from an area of 3.630 million hectares, showing an increase of 18.5 percent in the area and 4.0 percent in production over the targets fixed by the FCA. Mash for 2024-25 is estimated at 5.77 thousand tons from an area of 7.48 thousand hectares, showing an increase of 6.6 percent and 3.3 percent in area and production respectively over the last year.

He said that the meeting also discussed seed availability for Rabi Crops, and Director General (DG) of Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD) informed that the availability of certified seed for the Rabi, 2024-25 will remain satisfactory.

The officials of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) informed the meeting that there would be a shortage of water to the extent of about 16 per cent for Punjab and Sindh during the Rabi season.

Provinces are allocated 31.136 MAF of water subject to review in the 1st week of November 2024.

The official said the Pakistan Metrological Department (PMD) informed that overall, normal to below-normal precipitation is expected in most parts of the country, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, upper/central Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and upper/central parts of Balochistan.

However, slightly above normal rains are expected in Sindh, southern parts of Punjab, and Balochistan. However, near to normal rains are expected in October and December in the country.

The meeting was informed that the supply of urea and DAP is expected to remain stable during the upcoming Rabi 2024-25 (November-December 2024).

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of provincial agriculture departments, IRSA, PMD, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL), National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC), Agriculture Policy Institute (API), Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, Department of Plant Protection (DPP), Federal Water Management, Pakistan Oil Seed Board, Pakistan Agriculture Storage, and Services Cooperation, senior official of the MNFS&R, chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Services Corporation (PASSCO) also participated in the meeting physically as well as virtually.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024