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Friday March 29, 2024

Govt raises cotton output forecast by 1mln bales to 9.374mln

By Israr Khan
October 08, 2021

ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday raised its forecast for cotton output by one million bales to 9.374 million bales during the current crop season on near-perfect growing conditions and price support to farmers and also looks set for bumper harvest of 28.9 million tons from wheat crop.

The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) fixed the target of wheat production at 28.9 million tons for Rabi (winter) year 2021/22 and decided to provide all out support to the sector including subsidized fertilizers, pesticides and concessional lending to farmers, a statement said. Last year, the country produced 27.5 million tons of wheat.

The FAC meeting was chaired minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam. The FCA meets twice a year ahead of Kharif and Rabi season) to fix and review the crops production targets. It comprises the representatives of the federal food security ministry, provincial agriculture departments, and also takes the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and Metrological office on board. According to the working paper of FCA meeting, out of 28.9 million tons of wheat production target for Rabi season, Punjab will produce 21.94 million tons, Sindh 4.2 million tons, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.522 million tons and Balochistan with 1.207 million tons.

Other crops targets were also fixed, including gram at 559,000 tons, lentil 89,000 thousand tons, Potato 6.03 million tons, onion 2.42 million tons, tomatoes of 621,000 ons and Chillies 54,000 tons. The committee also reviewed the performance of upcoming Kharif crops including sugarcane, cotton, rice, maize and moong.

Cotton production was estimated at 9.37 million bales from an area of 1.9 million hectares. It expects 5.44 million bales from Punjab, 3.5 million bales from Sindh, 0.43 million bales from Balouchistan and another 4000 bales from Khyber Pakhtonkhawa.

The Committee was informed that sugarcane production for 2021-22 is estimated at 87.67 million tons from an area of 1.27 million hectares showing an increase of 8.7 percent and 8.2 percent in area and production respectively over the last year.

The committee estimated rice production at 8.84 million tons from an area of 3.5 million hectares showing an increase of 5.8 percent and 5 percent in area and production respectively over the last year. The maize production for 2021-22 is estimated at 9.0 million tons from an area of 1.4 million hectares. The mung bean production at was estimated at 267.6 thousand tons. Mash production declined by 12.8 percent to 59,000 tons.

The seed availability for Rabi crops also discussed in the house and it is informed by DG, FSC&RD that certified seed availability for the Rabi, 2021-22 will remain according to the requirement.

For Rabi 2021-22, IRSA Advisory Committee has anticipated a shortfall of 28 percent of irrigation water. During the Rabi season provinces are allocated 26.91 MAF of water. Prevailing weather conditions are supportive and shortage is manageable.

Metrological Department informed that Pakistan rainfall, for the country as whole, for the Monsoon season 2021 was close to climatic normal (-9 percent). On regional scale, it remained above normal over GB, Baluchistan& KP and below normal over AJK, Punjab and Sindh. Consequently, water stress may be observed for Rabi crops due to deficient rains, particularly in rain-fed areas.

Weather, outlook for the period of October to December, 2021 suggest that amount of rainfall will be below normal in agricultural plains of all the provinces of Pakistan.

In pursuance of government’s agenda for promotion of agriculture sector, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has assigned annual indicative agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs1,700 billion for FY 2021-22 to 49 institutions, which is 24.5 percent higher than last year’s disbursement of Rs1,366 billion.

Accordingly, during July-August 2021 (FY 2021-22), the agricultural lending institutions disbursed Rs171.6 billion, which is 10.1 percent of the overall annual target and 7.5 percent higher than the disbursement of Rs159.7 billion made during the same period last year. The house also informed that during upcoming Rabi 2021-22 (November - December, 2021) supply of urea and DAP expected to remain stable.