FCA set to produce 25 million tons wheat

[Hyde]

FCA set to produce 25 million tons wheat​

ISLAMABAD (updated on: 2010-11-01 19:46:06 PST):
Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) has set a target to produce about 25 million tons of wheat for the year 2010-11 as against the domestic requirement of 23.5 million tons. The 93rd meeting of the FCA was held here Monday with Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal in the chair.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Agriculture Punjab Ali Ahmed Aulakh and Secretaries of Provincial Agriculture Departments, AJK and other high officials of various attached departments were present in the meeting.

Briefing the media about the targets set for the Rabi season 2010-11, Nazar Gondal said that potato production target was fixed at 2.94 million tons against the requirement of 1.7 million tons.

He said that onion production target was fixed at 1.82 million tons against the requirement of 1500 thousand tons.

Gram production target was fixed at 619 thousand tons against the requirement of 600 metric tons, he added.

The FCA has set to produce about 14 thousand tons of lentil as against the requirement of 50 metric tons.

Meanwhile, the minister directed the provinces to devise appropriate policy for promotion of pulses like gram and lentil cultivation in their respective provinces.

For the Rabi season 2010-11, dry season was forecast during the months of November and December while normal precipitation was expected during January to March 2011 which is encouraging for the Rabi season crops.

The minister directed the Meteorological Department to release a package of information containing next season forecast in detail for farmers of different areas of the country.

About the status of agricultural inputs, the minister said that during 2009-10, total disbursement by the State Bank of Pakistan was Rs.248 billion which were 95 percent of the total allocation.

ZTBL was directed to immediately arrange a limit of Rs.120 million for promotion of canola cultivation in 17 flood affected districts.

Nazar Gondal said that total anticipated availability of as reported by IRSA, water for the season is 32.17 Million Acre Feet (MAF) against 25.52 MAF of the last year.

He said that sufficient water was reported to be available to meet all future indents and there shall be no shortage of irrigation water if the prevailing trend continuous.

 

[nForce]

That sounds really promising considering the fact that Pakistan just endured the biggest flood it has ever experienced and the agricultural sector took the hardest hit.
A very quick recovery in my opinion.

 

[Hyde]

Ambitious wheat target set for 2010/11
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Updated at: 2215 PST, Monday, November 01, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday set a higher wheat production target for the next season, despite devastating floods that damaged vast areas of farmland and left the country's breadbasket inundated.

Asia's third-largest wheat producer lost at least 725,000 tonnes of wheat in the August floods, and there have been concerns about the new wheat planting season after floodwater destroyed more than 2.4 million hectares of farmland.

But the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, told a news conference the target for next crop was 25 million tonnes, compared with the 23.8 million tonnes production last year.

"We are expecting to be able to plant wheat on an overall area where the crop is grown, by Dec. 15," he said after the meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture, which sets yearly crops targets.

In a Sept. 24 report, the International Grain Council on its website projected Pakistan's wheat harvest to be 22.6 million tonnes, even less than the 2009/10 crop.

Gondal did not say how the government planned to reach that target after the devastation of the floods, considered the worst in Pakistan's history and which inundated a fifth of the country.

Fatima Naqvi, head of for Oxfam's agriculture programme in Pakistan voiced caution about the target.

"Not only are we talking about land that is still underwater, we are also talking about how much access farmers have to seed or to cultivate the land," she said. "Right now that's just a prediction."

SEES HIGHER YIELD

A Food Ministry official said the government was expecting to plant about 9.04 million hectares of wheat, about the same area as last year, but the yield would likely be higher in areas where there were rains but no floods.

Large parts of Sindh, which produces about 17 percent of Pakistan's wheat, remain underwater, according to Oxfam.

Wheat is a staple food in Pakistan, with about 22 million tonnes consumed a year. Any shortage or steep rise in prices inflames public anger towards the government.

Experts see a good wheat crop next year as vital to help flood-affected farmers and revive agriculture, the backbone of the country's economy which suffered an estimated $5 billion in flood losses.

Monsoon flooding began in late July, well after the country had already harvested the 2009/10 crop, but it caused immense damage to cotton, sugarcane and rice crops.

Gondal said Pakistan now expects to produce 11 million cotton bales against the target of 14 million in the 2010/11 crop, compared with about 12.7 million bales the previous season, when the country had to import about 2 million bales.

Sugar output is likely to fall to 3.2 million tonnes, up from the previous estimates of 3 million tonnes.