Pakistan will grow onion over 162,000 hectares to produce around 2.422 million tons and potato over 226,000 hectares to produce 6.029 million tons to meet the domestic requirements as well as for export, reports WealthPK.

In Punjab, potato would be cultivated over 221,000 hectares, as the output target has been fixed at 5.966 million tons during the current season, an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research told WealthPK.

He said Sindh was tasked with growing potato over 700 hectares to produce 65,000 tons. The crop production targets were assigned in a meeting of Federal Committee on Agriculture chaired by minister for national food security and research.

Potato and onion are vital minor crops to meet the domestic requirements, said the official, adding that potato would be grown over 2,500 hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to produce over 30,300 tons. For Balochistan, the potato cultivation target has been fixed at 26,200 tons.

In Punjab, onion would be grown over 50,000 hectares and in Sindh over 60,000 hectares, he said, adding that the crop outputs for both the provinces were set at 8.688 million tons and 2.300 million tons respectively during the current Rabi season.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, onion would be grown over 12,000 hectares and around 40,000 hectares in Balochistan in order to get about 2.30 million tons and 7.05 million tons of the output respectively, he added.

The Federal Committee on Agriculture fixed the wheat output target at 28.4 million tons by cultivating the crop over 9.3 million hectares during 2022-23 season in order to meet the domestic requirement.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk