The country fears to miss wheat production target of 25.16 million tonnes from an area of 8.833 million hectares owing to recent widespread rains coupled with hailstorms and missing of sowing target by 6,000 hectares of land.
A source in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research said that representatives of Punjab Agriculture Department informed the meeting of Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) that recent devastating widespread hailstorms, torrential rains and gusty winds have badly affected standing mature wheat crop in the province. They further told the meeting that standing wheat crop was flattened to the ground in the wake of torrential rains and hailstorms.
He said that the FCA meeting, which was presided over by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Muhammad Mehboob Sultan, blamed Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) for not sharing weather forecast with the departments concerned on immediate basis. However, the PMD officials told the meeting that they have shared weather forecast with the departments concerned and also uploaded on its website.
The representatives of PMD informed the meeting that overall normal to slightly above normal rainfalls are likely to occur all over the country during May. However, based on gradual increase in air temperature, effective use of available water stocks is recommended.
The worst affected districts of Punjab include Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Multan, Khanewal, Vehari, Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Chiniot, and Chakwal. However, according to an official statement, while reviewing the performance of the Rabi crops (2018-19), the committee observed that wheat production for 2018-19 is estimated as on April 7, 2019 25.16 million tonnes from an area of 8.83 million hectares. Coupled with the last year's leftover stock of 3 million tonnes, the total availability of wheat will be about 28.16 million tonnes which is well over and above the total national requirements.
The FCA meeting reviewed estimates for Rabi crops production including wheat, gram, lentil, potato, onion, tomato and oilseed crops and fixed the targets for the Kharif season 2019-20 for cotton, sugarcane, rice, maize, Moong, Mash and chillies.
According an official document, wheat is grown on an area of 8.765 million hectares, which constitutes 99.23 percent of the target area. The target area is 0.006 million hectares less than the last year's actual sowing because of surplus wheat stock in the country and shortage of water.
The Punjab and the Sindh cover around 88 percent of the total area and contribute 92 percent of the total wheat production in the country. Out of 8.765 million hectares, wheat is grown in Punjab over an area of 6.564 million hectares which is 100.7 percent of the target area, while in Sindh it is grown on 1.0471 million hectares, which is 91.05 percent of target area. Likewise, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, wheat is grown on 0.765 million hectares, 99.55 percent of target area, and 0.389 million hectares, 97.25 percent of the target area, the document said.
The government had fixed wheat crop production target at 25.51 million tonnes from an area of 8.833 million hectares during Rabi 2018-19. Out of 25.51 million tonnes, Punjab will produce 19.5 million tonnes, Sindh, 3.800 million tonnes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 1.362 million tonnes, and Balochistan will produce 0.900 million tonnes.
According to the document, the total estimated gram production for 2018-19 is reported at 438.97 thousands tonnes from an area of 943.74 thousands hectares, showing an increase of 35.74 percent over the last year. In 2018-19 lentil crop was sown over an area of 12.44 thousand hectares with total production of 6.49 thousands tonnes, which reflects an increase of 2.38 percent over the last year, it said.
It said that potato crop was sown over any area of 188.08 thousands hectares in 2018-19 with total estimated production of 4820.15 thousands tonnes, which reflects an increase of 8.06 percent over the last year.
As per the official document, tomato crop occupied an area of 42.81 thousands hectares in 2018-19 with total production of 468.67 thousands tonnes, showing an increase of 13.04 percent over the last year.
According to the official statement, the meeting also fixed 15 million bales of cotton production target from an area of 2.9 million hectares for year 2019-20. The meeting also fixed 7.4 million tonnes production target for rice over an area of 2.9 million hectares.
The committee fixed the production target of sugarcane for year 2019-20 at 68.58 million tonnes from an area of 1.18 million hectares. About the availability of water for Kharif crop 2019-20, the committee was informed that sufficient water will be available in reservoirs. For the year 2019-20, the water availability in canals head will remain 108.67 million acres feet (MAF) as against last year which was 88.04 MAF. At present all the provinces are getting their satisfactory supplies in the system.
The minister said during the meeting that the government is making utmost efforts to help farmers by providing inputs at affordable prices. The government has imposed agriculture emergency and announced a project of around Rs 290 billion in this regard, he said, adding that the emphasis is to create enabling environment for investment and value-addition of various agriculture products.
He said, "We are facing difficulties in export of agro products to high-end markets due to the demand for pest free zone therefore provincial governments will develop "pest free zone" to boost agro exports.
The representatives of provincial agriculture departments, SBP, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL), National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC), PMD, Indus River System Authority (Isra), Pakistan Oil Seed Development Board (POSD), Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation (PASSCO) and senior officials of Ministry of National Food Security and Research attended the meeting.