Wheat crop sowing for Rabi season 2022-23 has been completed in over 83.11% of the crop producing areas in Pakistan as against the set target in order to produce about 28.37 million tons of grains to meet the local requirements as well as for exports, said an official. “So far, wheat cultivation has been completed on over 18.99 million acres of land as against the target of 22.37 million acres set for the current season, and the sowing is gaining momentum due to favourable weather conditions, particularly in rain-fed areas of the country,” said Imtiaz Ali Gopang, Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.

According to information available with WealthPK, the official said that 91.32% of the crop cultivation targets in Punjab province have been achieved so far, with the grain sown over 15.05 million acres of land against the set targets of 16.48 million acres. The crop output targets for Punjab were fixed at 21 million tons by the Federal Committee on Agriculture, while wheat sowing is still in progress and it is expected that more areas would come under cultivation due to incentives introduced by the government and increasing price of the commodity in the local markets.

Imtiaz said wheat was sown over 1.65 million acres of land in Sindh as the province was assigned a task to grow crop over 2.79 million acres in order to produce about 4 million tons of crop during Rabi season 2022-23. Crop cultivation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces was achieved by 77.93% and 41.18%, respectively, the official said, adding that wheat has been sown over 1.73 million acres of KP and 0.56 million acres in Balochistan. “The crop output for KP during the current season was fixed at 1.8 million tons by growing the crop over 2.22 million acres, and for Balochistan, it was fixed at 1.57 million tons by putting about 1.36 million acres under wheat cultivation,” he added.

The Ministry of National Food Security and Research in collaboration with provincial governments is providing over 3.183 million bags of certified wheat seeds to the farmers in floods affected areas to ensure maximum sowing of the major cash crop of the season to revive agriculture and avert the impact of catastrophe in the country. In this regard, a digital application has been developed to deliver and distribute seeds among the flood-hit farmers in a transparent and efficient manner. Each seed bag would comprise 50kg of different approved verities, while the cost of the scheme amounts to Rs17.16 billion, and it would cover about 78% of the areas affected by floods and torrential rains.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk