The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting for Rabi 2014-15) was held here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Sikander Hayat Khan Bosan, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research.
The meeting had participants from Provincial Agriculture Departments, Pakistan Meteorological Department, State Bank of Pakistan, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL), National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC) and senior officers of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Chairman, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Director General, National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) and heads of Ministry's attached departments such as Agriculture Policy Institute, Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, Department of Plant Protection, Federal Water Management, Pakistan Oilseed Development Board and PASSCO also participated in the meeting.
The committee reviewed the performance of Kharif crops (2014-15) and production plan for Rabi crops 2014-15, besides discussing the position of supply of agricultural inputs for the Rabi crop 2014-15. The committee was informed that sugarcane production for 2014-15 was estimated at 64.74 million tons from an area of 1.13 million hectares. The rice crop 2014-15 production was estimated around 6.72 million tons from an area of 2.76 million hectares. The production achievements of other crops such as maize, chillies and mung were also discussed in the meeting.
The committee fixed the wheat crop 2014-15 production targets at 26.0 million tons from an area of 8.91million hectares. However, the Provincial Representatives of Agriculture Department emphasised that adequate supply of urea and phosphate fertilisers during November-December. The target for gram 2014-15 production was also fixed at 0.72 million tons from an area of 0.99 million hectares. The target for onion crop 2014-15 was at 2.0 million tons and Potato crop 2014-15 production target was fixed at 3.56 million tons.
The committee was informed that irrigation water availability position for current Rabi season 2014-15 would be satisfactory and the anticipated rainfall would be on optimal level except in some areas of Sindh. The Met Department reported the IRSA data that, the water levels in the reservoirs were better as compared to last year. Additionally, the Met Department was optimistic that rain prospects were also better in upper parts of the country.
The committee was informed that certified wheat seed availability would be 25% of the requirements. The representative of State Bank of Pakistan informed that allocations of institutional credit for agriculture had substantially increased to Rs 500 billion for 2014-15 in comparison with the last year's (2013-14) level of Rs 380 billion.
The committee also noted with relief that supply of pesticides / herbicides would be satisfactory for 2014-15 Rabi season. The current projections for Urea fertilizer put the estimated availability at 2.49 million tons against it's estimated off take off 3.1million tons with a confirmed import of 0.185 million tons. It was however, crucial that all the imports of Urea are completed in time and fertilizer manufacturing units produce sufficient urea for requirements in months of December and January. The supply of DAP for Rabi 2014-15 season was reported at 1024 thousand tons against its requirements of 800 thousand tons.-PR
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