The country is feared to miss the production target set for the current year of major crops including wheat, gram and lentil by 4 percent, 45.7 percent and 34.7 percent respectively which would negatively affect GDP growth for the outgoing financial year 2017-18. The country has already missed revised cotton production target of 12.6 million bales for 2017-18 by around 7 percent. The original target of 14.04 million bales of cotton for 2017-18 had been revised downward to 12.6 million bales.
This was revealed to the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA), which met here on Tuesday to review agriculture performance of Rabi season and fix targets for the Kharif season 2018-19. The FCA mandated to oversee strategic measures for ensuring food security in the country, held its second biannual meeting under the chairmanship of Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research.
Besides participations of senior officers of the ministry, the meeting was attended by the provincial agriculture departments, State Bank of Pakistan, ZTBL, National Fertilizer Development Center (NFDC), Pakistan Meteorological Department, Indus River System Authority and member, Food Security & Climate Change of Planning Commission of Pakistan.
After endless efforts, this ministry succeeded to retrieve the subject of cotton and NFDC in its domain and fruitful results will be achieved for agriculture sector in future, said the minister while briefing media persons after the FCA meeting.
While reviewing the performance of the Rabi crops (2017-18), the committee observed that wheat production for 2017-18 is estimated at 25.41 million tons from an area of 8.76 million hectares against the target of 26.46 million tons from 8.94 million hectares. Coupled with the last year's left over stock of one million tons, the total availability of wheat will be about 26.41 million tons which is well over and above the total national requirements, the minister added.
He further said that the committee was informed that the gram production for 2017-18 has been estimated at 375,600 tons from an area of 962,900 hectares against the target of 617,500 tons from 995,000 hectares.
Furthermore, the lentil production for 2017-18 has been estimated at 6,600 tons from 13,800 hectares against the target of 10,100 tons from 20,900 hectares.
The committee also discussed the production achievements of other essential crops like potato, onion and tomato which registered 12 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.3 percent increase. However, the minister said that farmers did not get due return for tomato crops as the benefit was taken by the middlemen. He further said that despite pressure, tomato import was not allowed from India which saved around Rs 10-12 billion.
The committee fixed the production target (2018-19) of sugarcane at 68,157,000 tons over an area of 1,161,100 hectares. The minister admitted that farmers did not get due return which is unfortunate, but the crop price is being fixed and monitored by provinces. He said that matter was also raised in Cabinet and Council of Common Interests (CCI), but farmers did not get good price.
The FCA held detailed deliberation over the production targets for essential Kharif crops 2018-19 and decided to fix 14.37 million bales of cotton production target from an area of land 2,955,000 hectares whereas fixed 6,931,500 tons production target for rice over 2,805,000 hectares of land. The targets for other crops such as maize, moong, mash and chilies were also fixed as 5,301,000 tons, 11,300 tons and 117,900 tons respectively.
Pondering over the availability of agricultural inputs for Kharif crops (2018-19), the committee was informed that due to high temperature sufficient water is expected to be available in reservoiRs For Kharif 2018-19, water availability in canals head will remain 62.03 million acres feet (MAF) as against average usage of 69.4 MAF. It was informed that there will be 33% shortage of water in early Kharif and 11% in late Kharif. However at present all the provinces are getting their indented supplies in the system.
Meteorological Department informed that winter season snow cover was 20-25% less than long-term average. However, the rainfall during April-June 2018 will be less than normal, while the temperature is expected to remain 1-2 centigrade warmer than the normal. It is estimated that during this Kharif season, crop will remain under stress to shortage of water. Keeping in view of current scenario there is a need to use water judiciously.
The committee was informed that the availability of rice and maize seed will be 85% and 80% respectively of the total seed requirements.
The representative from State Bank of Pakistan informed that allocations of institutional credit for agriculture had substantially increased to Rs 1,001 billion for 2017-18 and the disbursement up to February 2018 was Rs 570 billion which is 57% of overall annual target of Rs 1,001 billion and is 39.4% higher than the disbursement of Rs 409 billion made during last year.
The FCA appreciated the positive impact of fertilizer subsidy scheme which contributed to high yield and noted that the supply of urea and DAP fertilizers was satisfactory for 2017-18 Rabi season. Due to local production and available stock, the supply position of urea will remain comfortable subjected to uninterrupted supply of natural gas to fertilizer manufacturing plants. However, import of DAP needs consideration to avoid any deficiency.
It was also informed to the committee that at present Pakistan has produced surplus wheat, rice, maize, moong, potato, onion, tomato, sugar, kinnow and various other fruits and vegetables. Pakistan has also exported its agro-products to all over the world significantly.
In the end, the committee expressed satisfaction over the food security situation in the country but it emphasized the need for research & development as well as better coordination to consolidate the gains and ensure further progress of the sector.
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