Agri Forum Pakistan Chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal has claimed that Pakistan has missed the wheat crop-sowing target by 1.8 million acres. In Punjab alone, around one million-acre cannot be brought under wheat cultivation as a result of delayed decisions and poor government strategy.
Talking to media here on Saturday, Mughal also feared that it is quite possible that production of wheat would remain around 23 million tons against the target of 25 million tons set for the current year. He pointed out that unnecessary delay in sowing, low acreage and high fertiliser prices would badly hurt the wheat production.
He said the country had some 5.5million tons of wheat stocks, of which three million tons would be consumed when the new crop would come to markets, while the remaining carryover stocks would support the next year's requirements. Mughal underscored that the country could easily earn Rs 75 to Rs 100 billion, if the government made timely decisions and the country could produce 3 million tons of extra wheat.
He drew the attention of the government towards what he said artificial shortage of fertiliser and demanded immediate steps to arrest artificial urea shortage and ensure farmers would use fertilisers and pesticides in required quantities. Agri Forum Pakistan demanded that the government should also start procurement preparations for the coming crop right now.
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