Ongoing winter rainy spell will have positive impact on Rabi crops particularly wheat, pulses and fruit orchards in the country, said agricultural and Metrological experts on Monday. "The recent rains will play a positive role in grain production and contribute to national growth" Dr Shakeel Ahmad Khan, food security commissioner-II at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research told Business Recorder.
He said that the recent rains in arid zone will help to improve wheat crop production. He said the government had set wheat output target at 25 million tons for Rabi season 2013-14 with Punjab targeted to produce 9 million tons, Sindh 3.80 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.35 million tons and 0.85 million tons is the target set for Balochistan. Dr Aslam Gill, food security commissioner-I said that rains would also have positive impact on pluses like grams, lentil and other seasonal vegetables cultivated in the country.
The projected gram target for 2013-14 is 0.760 million tons, of which Punjab will produce 695,000 tons, Sindh 19,000 tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 21,000 tons and Balochistan will produce 25,000 tons. Lentil is also one of the important Rabi pulse grown in the country. Punjab contributes 56.6 percent country's lentil production, Sindh contributes 16.7 percent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have a combined share of 26.8 percent. The projected lentil target for 2013-14 is 12.8 thousand tons, of which Punjab will produce 5.5 thousand tons, Sindh 2.0 thousand tons, KP 3.5 thousand tons and Balochistan 1.8 thousands tons.
Director General, Pakistan Meteorological Department, Arif Mahmood told this scribe that some good spell of rain is also expected in coming days of the current month. He predicted that at least 2 more spells of rain are expected in March - the first to start from March 15 and continue for three days while the second will start in the last week of the current month.
The recent spell will also help in the recovery of soil moisture besides increased crop production, he added. About the weather forecast for next 48 hours, Arif Mahmood said that scattered rain-thunderstorm (snow on the hills) is expected in Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir, Upper KP (Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat divisions.), Islamabad, Upper Punjab (Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore divisions) and at isolated places in Sargodha/Faisalabad divisions.
However, during next 24 hours scattered rain is expected in D I Khan, Multan, Sahiwal, DG Khan, Bahawalpur and Zhob divisions, isolated in Sukkur division, he maintained. The rainfall recorded during last 24 hours : Rawalakot 67mm, Parachinar 63mm, Rawalpindi (Chaklala 61mm, Shamsabad 46mm), Islamabad (Zero Point 57mm, Saidpur 54mm, Golra 54mm), Kotli 57mm, Mangla 53mm, Murree 46mm, jhelum 41mm, Muzaffarabad, Abbottabad 38mm, Chakwal 30mm, Balakot 29mm, Pattan 23mm, Dir 22mm, Saidu Sharif 18mm, Chirat, M.B Din 16mm, Kalam 15mm, Peshawar 12mm, Lower Dir 11mm, Malamjabba 10mm.