Centre, provinces in row over wheat crop target

Provincial govts propose lower harvest for sowing season 2024-25

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government and provincial administrations are locked in a row over the wheat production target for Rabi sowing season 2024-25 as provinces want a lower target for the staple crop.

In Punjab, farmers have been badly hit as the provincial government refrained from procuring wheat at a fixed support price last season.

The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) met on October 29 to set targets for Rabi crops.

Headed by Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain, the committee recalled last year's performance when 31.81 million tons of wheat was harvested from an area of 9.74 million hectares.

For the new crop, the federal government proposed a harvest of 33.58 million tons from the target area of 10.368 million hectares to achieve self-sufficiency.

However, the provinces came up with lower targets, proposing cultivation over an area of 9.263 million hectares and production of 27.92 million tons.

The FCA urged the provincial governments to make all-out efforts to achieve the sowing and output targets proposed by the federal government to meet the wheat consumption requirement next year.

Harvest targets for gram, potato, onion, tomato and chillies were fixed at 419, 6,829, 2,555, 659 and 57 thousand tons respectively.

While discussing seed availability, the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department director general told the meeting that certified seed supplies for Rabi crops would remain satisfactory.

The committee was informed that sugarcane production for season 2024-25 was provisionally estimated at 85.5 million tons from an area of 1.193 million hectares, higher by 11.5% and 4.3% respectively over the targets fixed by the FCA.

Rice output is estimated at 9.079 million tons from an area of 3.630 million hectares, up 4% and 18.5% over the set targets.

Mash production is estimated at 5.77 thousand tons from an area of 7.48 thousand hectares, showing an increase of 3.3% and 6.6% respectively compared to last year.

For the Rabi planting season, the advisory committee of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has anticipated a water shortage of about 16% for Punjab and Sindh. Provinces have been allocated 31.136 million acre feet of water, subject to review in the first week of November 2024.

The Metrological Department told the meeting that normal-to-below normal precipitation was expected in most parts of the country, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, upper and central Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and upper and central parts of Balochistan.

However, slightly above-normal rainfall is expected in Sindh, southern parts of Punjab and Balochistan. However, near-normal rains are likely in October and December in the country. It was emphasised that to stabilise the food security situation, the government was making arrangements to facilitate farmers by providing inputs at affordable prices and ensuring better prices for their produce.

To increase the flow of credit to the agriculture sector, the State Bank of Pakistan has set an indicative disbursement target of Rs2,250 billion for financial year 2025, higher by 26.7% than the preceding year's disbursement of Rs1,776 billion.

At present, 47 financial institutions are providing agricultural loans to farmers including five major commercial banks, 13 medium-sized domestic private banks, six Islamic banks, two specialised banks, 11 microfinance banks and 10 microfinance institutions or rural support programmes.