The next meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) is likely to be held by the end of this month to review Kharif crop production position and fix Rabi crop targets. An official of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research MNS&RS told this correspondent that the FCA will review Kharif crop 2015-16 production position of sugarcane, rice, maize, moong, mash and chillies as well as supply of inputs for Rabi crops 2016-17 including seeds, fertilizer, irrigation water, agriculture credit and plant protects.
Recent rains and floods have adversely affected Kharif crops, including cotton sown on 7.31 million acres, sugarcane sown on three million acres and paddy sown on 7.2 million acres due to which country is unlikely to achieve target of major Kharif crops. He said that in Punjab sugarcane was sown on area of 1.73 million acres, Sindh 0.8 million acres, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 0.325 million acres and Balochistan 0.2 million acres. In Punjab paddy was sown on an area of 3.6 million acres, Sindh 1.98 million acres, KP 0.175 acres and in Balochistan paddy was sown on 0.450 million acres.
The official further revealed that maize was sown on 2.4 million acres across the country of which 1.25 million acres was sown in Punjab, 10,000 acres in Sindh, 1.25 million acres in KP and 10,000 acres in Balochistan. The official said that the FCA will discuss production plan for Rabi crops 2016-17 of wheat, gram, lentil, potatoes, onions, rapeseed, mustard and non-conventional oilseeds. The official said that the FCA would also set the targets for Rabi crops 2016-2017, including wheat, gram, lentil, potatoes and onion.
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Bosan will preside over the meeting. Provincial ministers for agriculture and secretaries, federal secretaries, representatives from federal and provincial agriculture departments, Indus River System Authority (IRSA), Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will also attend the meeting.