ISLAMABAD: The country has missed the cotton production target for the Kharif 2026-27 season, as the estimated production of the commodity is 6.7 million bales from an area of 1.75 million hectares, against the set target of 9.64 million bales.
According to an official document submitted to the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting for the Rabi season, presided over by Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain, the estimated cotton production is 6.7 million bales from 1.75 million hectares.
He said the FCA reviewed the production targets for Kharif crops 2025-26 but did not fix production targets for wheat and other Rabi crops for the 2026-27 season. The committee decided that the targets for Rabi 2026-27 crops, including wheat, would be finalised after the announcement of the indicative price/minimum support price (MSP) for wheat.
However, according to an official document submitted to the FCA, the proposed wheat production target for Rabi 2026-27 is 33 million tonnes from 9.763 million hectares of land.
Of the proposed target of 33 million tonnes, Punjab will produce 25 million tonnes, Sindh 5 million tonnes, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1.50 million tonnes and Balochistan 1.50 million tonnes.
The official said the meeting also reviewed the performance of Kharif crops and was informed that sugarcane production for 2026-27 is provisionally estimated at 97.2 million tonnes from an area of 1.35 million hectares, showing increases of 18.5 percent and 21.1 percent in area and production, respectively.
Of the total production, Punjab’s estimated sugarcane production is 73.756 million tonnes from an area of 0.992 million hectares; Sindh’s 18.5338 million tonnes from 0.2748 million hectares; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 4.9665 million tonnes from 0.0911 million hectares; and Balochistan’s 0.0368 million tonnes from 0.00072 million hectares, it says.
It says that in 2026-27, rice was cultivated over an area of 3.92 million hectares, which is 3.9 percent higher than last year’s area of 3.75 million hectares. Rice production is estimated at 10.18 million tonnes, showing increases of 28.4 percent in area and 11.0 percent in production over the targets fixed by the government.
Of the total production, Punjab’s estimated rice production was 5.766 million tonnes from an area of 2.593 million hectares; Sindh produced 3.789 million tonnes from 1.105 million hectares; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced 0.168 million tonnes from 0.065 million hectares; while Balochistan produced 0.460 million tonnes from 0.140 million hectares, it says.
It says maize production for 2025-26 is estimated at 9.97 million tonnes from an area of 1.83 million hectares, showing increases of 21.0 percent in area and 3.2 percent in production.
The official said the meeting also reviewed the production of mungbean, mash and chilli.
The document says representatives of the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSCRD) informed the meeting that wheat seed procurement availability for sowing Rabi 2026-27 is 0.611793 million tonnes, which will fulfil 51 percent of the total seed requirement of 1.191555 million tonnes.
Provincial wheat seed availability is 0.553009 million tonnes (67 percent) in Punjab, 0.040874 million tonnes (23 percent) in Sindh, 0.007459 million tonnes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 0.010452 million tonnes (13 percent) in Balochistan. For the Rabi 2025-26 sowing season, total seed availability was 0.574330 million tonnes (51 percent), he said.
Officials of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) informed the meeting that there would be a water shortage of about 22 percent for Punjab and Sindh during the Rabi season.
A representative of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) informed the meeting that mostly above-normal rainfall is expected during October and November.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026