ISLAMABAD: The country has missed the wheat production target as the estimated production of the commodity is 29.69 million tons against the set target of 32.2 million for the Rabi Season 2023-2024 from an area of 9.6 million hectares of land.

According to provincial governments’ reports, shared during the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting presided over by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) Rana Tanveer Hussain, wheat production for 2023-24 is estimated at 29.69 million tons from an area of 9.6 million hectares.

The FCA during its previous meeting held in October 2023 fixed a wheat crop production target at 32.2 tons for the Rabi Season 2023-2024 from an area of 9.6 million hectares of land.

According to provincial government estimates, out of 29.6 million tons of estimated production wheat, Punjab will produce 22.6 million tons of wheat, Sindh 4.4 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.4 million tons, and Balochistan 1.3 million tons.

An official said the meeting was informed that though the country missed the fixed wheat production target, but the production of wheat showed an increase of 5.4 per cent over the last year.

The meeting was also informed that onion production for 2023-24 is estimated at 1.92 million tons from an area of 0.122 million hectares, the increase in production is 3.9 per cent, whereas, but area decreased 5.4per cent over the last year.

Similarly, tomato production for 2023-24 is estimated 627,000 tons from an area of 50,000 hectares the increase in production is 3.9 per cent, whereas, the area decreased 0.3 per cent over the last year.

The potato production for 2023-24 is estimated 8.1 million tons from an area of 0.3 million hectares the increase in production is 27.9 per cent. The FCA reviewed the performance of Rabi crops (2023-24) and fixed targets for the Kharif season 2024-25.

The FCA fixed a production target of cotton 10.8 million bales. It also fixed a rice production target of 8.7 million tons from over 3.1 million hectares of land. The FCA also fixed the production target of sugarcane for the year 2024-25 at 76.7 million tons over an area of 1.3 million hectares. The committee fixed maize production target at 9.3 million tons production from an area over 1.5 million hectares of land. The targets of other crops including mung, mash, and chillies were also fixed by FCA.

He said that the meeting was informed that water availability in canals head for Kharif year 2024-25, will remain at 63.61 million acres feet (MAF) as against last year, which was 61.85 MAF.

The senior officials of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that from April to June 2024, normal to slightly above normal precipitation is expected in most parts of the country particularly over upper Punjab during the season May to July 2024. Tendency of above normal precipitation is likely to prevail in the months of August and September 2024, they further told the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by the representatives of provincial agriculture departments, IRSA, PMD, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL), National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC), Agriculture Policy Institute (API), Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department, Department of Plant Protection (DPP), Federal Water Management, Pakistan Oil Seed Board, Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Cooperation, senior official of the MNFS&R, and chairman Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024