The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) will meet here on Tuesday to fix production targets for coming Kharif crops including cotton and sugarcane and review outgoing Rabi crops including wheat, official sources said. They said that encouraged by all-time high bumper crop during last season, the government is likely to set about 12 million bales cotton production target for the coming Kharif. After an 'intensive' crisis of sugar prices this year mainly due to the low production of sugarcane during last Kharif, the meeting is likely to set over 5 million tons as target for the coming season.
"We will set over 5 million tons as our production target for sugarcane for coming Kharif and go all-out to achieve it to avoid this year-like crisis in future," an official of Food Ministry said.
The FCA is also likely to set 5.1 million and 1.9 million tons production targets for rice and maize, respectively, sources said.
Federal Food Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan will chair the meeting of the FCA. Food ministers and secretaries of all the four provinces, representatives of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and Indus River System Authority (Irsa) will also attend the meeting.
Irsa representative would apprise the meeting about the projected water availability situation for Kharif.
Asked why the government was to set 12 million bales as production target for cotton after crossing 14 million figure last season, sources said: "The government thinks last season as an extraordinary year. That's why it doesn't want to set an ambitious target."
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