ISLAMABAD: The Federal Com­mittee on Agriculture (FCA) on Thursday set upward targets for Kharif crops mainly rice, sugarcane and maize in view of sufficient availability of water and agriculture inputs.

The target for sugarcane was set at 67.53 million tonnes from 1.12 million hectares for 2016-17 as compared to 65.03 million tonnes in 2015-16. Rice production target was fixed at 6.83 million tonnes from 2.8 million hectares, maize at 4.60 million tonnes and moong at 111,400 tonnes.

Addressing a news conference after the committee’s meeting, National Food Security Minister Sikandar Bosan said there would be no shortage of agricultural inputs during Kharif. The availability of urea and DAP would be normal.

He said surplus stocks of fertiliser would be available because several fertiliser plants have started production following improvement in gas supply after RLNG injection into the system.

The committee’s meeting was informed that as many as Rs332.7 billion agricultural credit was disbursed during the first nine months of this fiscal year by various banks and financial institutions against the target of Rs600bn set by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The disbursement during the July-March period of 2015-16 depicted an increase of 15.3pc when compared to the disbursement of Rs288.7bn during the corresponding period last year.

The meeting was also informed that the availability of certified seeds of various crops was satisfactory and supply of pesticides and herbicides during Kharif would be normal.

According to the first estimate received by the ministry, the wheat production during the Rabi season was expected to be 25.45 million tonnes against the target of 26 million tonnes. Mr Bosan explained that the actual production would be measured when the second estimate is released next month.

In view of better prospects for wheat production, the government has enhanced the targets of its procurement. Punjab will procure 4.0 million tonnes against 3.2 million tonnes last year and Passco one million tonnes against 800,000 tonnes last year. While Sindh will procure 1.1 million tonnes against 900,000 tonnes last year.

Provincial governments held a meeting in Lahore last week to finalise arrangements to start official procurement from April 20, for which there will be no shortage of ‘bardana’, Bosan said.

Despite all these positive developments, he said, state of affairs of farmers in terms of profitability is not satisfactory. Since agriculture has been devolved, the provincial governments should earmark sufficient allocations for farmers under the annual development programme. He praised Punjab for earmarking Rs100bn for farmers development.

In response to a question, Mr Bosan said that his ministry was finalising a new framework for agriculture as directed by the prime minister. Reforms for the agricultural sector benefiting the farming community would be announced in the federal budget 2016-17. The ministry has already held consultative meetings with the provinces in this regard, he said.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2016