The statistics presented at the meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture on April 3 reflected production in major Kharif crops during 2003-04 at a level higher than the estimates fixed before the beginning of the season.
This could be described as a highly satisfactory performance of the agriculture sector particularly in the face of the prevailing shortages of irrigation water, indicating brighter prospects of improvements in per acre yield given adequate efforts on the part of the farmers to adopt modern methods of cultivation including proper selection of high yielding and pest-resistant seeds.
The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) reviewed the production estimates of Kharif crops for the year 2003-04 and prescribed targets of production for the next season.
The meeting was presided over by the Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Yar Muhammad Rind, while those attending the meeting included Arif Mustafa Jatoi, Sindh Minister for Food and Agriculture and senior officials of the food and agriculture ministries of other provinces.
It was estimated that cotton production will be in the region of 10.1 million bales against the target of 10 million bales.
Thus the earlier apprehensions of widespread damage to cotton crop have been allayed thanks to the timely protective measures taken by the farmers to control pest attack.
The estimate of cotton production for the next season has been revised upwards to 10.7 million bales which appears to be based on larger acreage allocation for this crop by the provincial governments.
However, despite a higher target for the next season, the production of cotton would continue to be lower than the consumption requirements of the national textile industry at around 12.5 million bales.
Moreover, the government is not paying adequate attention to the need for making the locally produced cotton free from contamination.
As a result, the textile industry has been increasingly importing better-quality cotton from the USA.
This shows that rising trend in cotton production is not the complete answer to the problem of meeting the local consumption demand, and steps would have to be directed towards the objective of producing contamination-free cotton.
The production of rice, the other major Kharif crop, is estimated at 4.9 million tonnes in the current season as compared to the previous estimates of 4.5 million tonnes.
The next year's target has been placed at 5.1 million tonnes which is undoubtedly an appropriate policy decision in the context of better prospects of rice exports to new markets in the current financial year.
There was a report that Pakistan's rice exporters were planning to buy rice from India to re-export it to countries with whom a firm deal was in hand.
In the circumstances, a better price of rice should be ensured to the local farmers in order to encourage them to increase production through better per acre yield.
The Federal Committee on Agriculture also estimated that wheat production in the current Rabi season is likely to exceed the target of 20 million tonnes and touch the level of 20.1 million tonnes which would be adequate to meet the local consumption demand.
Since harvesting in Sindh has already started, the shortfall in wheat flour supply in the province apprehended currently, is expected to be arrested quite on time.
The Agriculture Committee has expressed satisfaction over the prospects of adequate availability of inputs like better-quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.
However, the new policy about the supply of pesticides is yet to be announced by the government which should be expedited with all necessary measures to pre-empt rise in prices.
The new Kharif season will take off shortly with the commencement of sowings and therefore stable conditions in the supply of irrigation water and necessary inputs will have to be ensured. Credit disbursement is also stated to be on the increase to farmers.
It is estimated that the agricultural credit in the forthcoming season during the year 2004-05 is going to be at a higher level of Rs 65.6 billion as compared to the current year's estimated amount of Rs 62 billion.
It may be pointed out here that commercial banks are now increasingly offering credit to the farmers. One of the reasons for the rapid increase in credit financing to agriculture sector from commercial banks, appears to be the relatively higher rate of mark-up at around 9 percent as against the prevailing rate of 5 to 8 percent charged to commercial and industrial clients.
It is expected that larger flow of bank credit into the farm sector would ultimately force the mark-up rates downwards.