FCA fixes onion target at 2.422mt, potato at 6.029mt

ISLAMABAD: Onion crop would be cultivated on 162,000 hectares to produce about 2.422 million tonnes (mt) of onion during Rabi season 2022-23, besides cultivating potatoes

over 226,000 hectares to produce 6.029 million tonnes of potatoes for fulfilling the domestic requirements as well as to export, a statement said on Friday.

In Punjab, potatoes would be cultivated on 221,000 hectares as output targets for the province had been fixed at 5.966 million tonnes during current season as against the sowing of corresponding period of last year, said an official in the ministry of National Food Security and Research.

He said Sindh was assigned a task to grow potatoes over 700 hectares to produce 65,000 tonnes, adding that the crop production targets were assigned in a meeting of Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA).

The potatoes and onions are included in minor crops of the country and vital sources to tackle the domestic vegetables requirements, he said adding that potatoes crop would be grown over 2,500 hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to produce over 30,300 tonnes and in Balochistan the potatoes cultivation targets were fixed at 26,200 tonnes to tackle with the domestic needs.

Meanwhile, he added that onion crops in Punjab would be cultivated over 50,000 hectares and in Sindh on 60,000 hectares. The crop output for both the provinces was set at 8.688 million tonnes and 2.300 million tonnes respectively during current Rabi season, he revealed.

The onions to be grown on 12,000 hectares of KP and 40,000 hectares of Balochistan to get about 2.30 million tonnes and 7.05 million tonnes of the output respectively during the season, he said.

It is worth mentioning here that the FCA fixed wheat output targets at 28.4 million tonnes by cultivating the crop over 9.3 million hectares during crop season 2022-23 to fulfill local requirements.

The meeting held with the minister for National Food Security and Research in chair also reviewed the output of Kharif crops and set the targets for Rabi crops for season 2022-23 besides discussing availability of all inputs throughout the season.