Ministry of Food, Agriculture and livestock (Minfal) has decided to bring over 1039.5000 hectares land under sugarcane cultivation with an aim to meet domestic consumption needs of sugar during the current financial year.
Official source in the Minfal on Tuesday said bumper crop of sugarcane was achieved during last financial year (2006-07) due to suitable weather, balanced use of fertilisers, seeds and sufficient availability of water for irrigation.
During the last year, about 1029 thousand hectares land was brought under sugarcane cultivation, he said adding that 54,871 thousand tons of sugarcane crop, with an average of 53 thousand tons per hectare, was produced during the period.
He said that area under sugarcane cultivation was increased, from 1029 to 1039.5 thousand hectares to produce sugar for domestic consumption and save foreign reserves spent on its import.
"The ministry has also decided to adopt a strategy to increase per hectare crop output by using qualitative seeds and by providing technical assistance to the growers," he added. Giving overall province wise details, he said that 700 thousand hectares land was under sugarcane cultivation in Punjab province with an estimate production of 37500 thousand tons adding that 53 thousand tons would be produced from per hectare.
About 230 thousand hectares land was brought under sugarcane cultivation in Sindh, 109 hectare in NWFP and 4 thousand hectares in Balochistan to produce average production of 57,43 thousand tons per hectare. "Government has decided to provide financial and technical assistance to the growers to increase per hectare productivity in the country to enhance profitability," he concluded.