The yield of wheat crop per acre has increased by 5-7 percent in Sindh as compared to last years statistics, while according to US estimates, wheat production in Pakistan would be more than 24 million tons, Shahid Hussain, Additional Secretary of Minfa told Business Recorder here on Monday. He said: "We admit that there are some pockets in Sindh affected by rain. But these pockets are very few in number".
He said that the government has strictly forbidden sowing of Bhakar variety of wheat, but some growers used this variety. Resultantly, they are suffering from reduction in yield per acre of wheat. "These are some areas of Mirpurkhas, but very few in number. It means that some reduction in yield per acre of wheat in these areas is purely insignificant".
He said that the country would be able to harvest more than 24 million tons of wheat that would increase the overall GDP rate for current fiscal year which would enable the country to achieve the growth target of 2.5 percent of GDP. Agriculture has been facing acute water shortage, and the water-intensive crops--sugarcane and maize--fell short of the target, and depicted negative growth of 18.5 percent and 7.5 percent respectively in 2008-09.
However, cotton and rice registered positive growth of 7.3 and 13.5 percent respectively. The combined weight of sugarcane and maize in overall agriculture is 6.2 percent while that of cotton and rice is 13 percent. The Rabi season started with estimated water shortage of 31.6 percent.
However, widespread rains during December 2008 to February 2009, in most parts of the country, had positive impact on the outlook of the Rabi crops. Wheat, with its 12.7 percent weight in overall agriculture, is estimated to post 19 percent growth over last year. The area under cultivation of wheat had surpassed the target of 8.6 million hectares by 5 percent.
The provincial governments and Passco have made arrangements for highest ever quantum of procurement at 6.55 million tons of wheat, which is far higher than 3.9 million tons procured last year.
Fertiliser off-take of both urea and DAP decreased by almost 10.5 percent during July-January 2008-09 amid weak demand due to higher prices, and vague market signals led to shortages. The disbursement of agriculture credit was up by 8.2 percent in July-February 2008-09 and stood at Rs 130.3 billion as compared to Rs 120.4 billion disbursed in the corresponding period of last year.
The crop sector is projected to surpass the growth target. The livestock sector is growing at normal pace, and thus the target of 3.2 percent would be achieved. The agriculture sector is likely to achieve its growth target of 3.3 percent for the current fiscal year, the Secretary added.