ISLAMABAD: Wheat crop sowing in the country for the year 2013-14 has registered an increase of 2.70 percent as compared to the sowing of same period last year.
Crop sowing has been completed over 95.46 percent as wheat has been cultivated over 8.537 million hectare of land as against the set targets of 8.943 million hectares for the current Rabi season, said Deputy Food Security Commissioner in Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Imtiaz Ahmad Gopang.
Talking to APP here on Tuesday, he said that due to availability of all major inputs including seed, fertilizers and other pesticides the crop sowing was quite satisfactory.
The government, he said has set a target to produce 25 million tons of wheat by cultivating the crop over 8.943 million hectares during the sowing season 2013-14 to fulfil the domestic requirements as well as for exports.
He said that up to December 30, crop sowing has been completed over 95.46 percent of land set for cultivation during current season, showing increase of 2.70 percent over the same period last year.
Giving the province wise details of wheat sowing, he said that Punjab which has the largest wheat producing area has achieved about 98.43 percent of its sowing targets.
He further said that wheat crop has been cultivated over 6.592 million hectares as against the set targets of 6.693 million for the year 2013-14.
Sindh province has achieved 96 percent of its sowing targets as the crop has been cultivated over 1.055 million hectares as against the fixed targets of 1.100 million hectares for the current crop season, he added.
Imtiaz Ahmad said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has achieved 72 percent of its sowing targets and the crop has cultivated over 0.540 million hectares against its fixed targets of 0.750 million hectares for the period under review.
Deputy Food Security commissioner further said that crop sowing has been completed over 87.40 percent in Balochistan province as the province has managed to cultivate crop over 0.350 million hectares of land against its set targets of 0.400 million hectares.
It is expected that more area will under crop cultivation during the days to come as sugarcane crop over 30,000 hectares of land was still standing and ready for harvesting, he added.
He said that government has set a target to produce 25 million tons of wheat during current crop sowing season to fulfil the domestic requirements, for keeping the strategic food reserves as well as to export.
He said that Punjab was given the task to produce 19.05 million tons of wheat, while about 3.8 million tons wheat production targets were set for the Sindh province.
Meanwhile, he said that wheat production targets for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were fixed at 1.3 million tons and 0.850 million tons respectively for the crop season 2013-14.
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