ISLAMABAD, Jan 22 : Owing to the incentives introduced by the government, wheat sowing in the country during the current season (Rabi 2023-24) increased by 7.5 per cent as compared to the crop sowing of the corresponding period of the last year.
During the period under review, wheat sowing had been completed over 23.69 million acres as against the set targets of 22.22 million acres, said Food Security Commissioner In the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Imtiaz Ali Gopang.
The wheat crop has been sown across more than 23.69 million acres of land in various crop-growing regions during the current season to meet local staple food requirements and maintain strategic reserves throughout the year, he told APP here on Monday.
The wheat cultivation targets fixed for the period under review were achieved by 107 per cent as crop sowing in two major grain-producing provinces Sindh and Punjab gained momentum as both the provinces surpassed their assigned targets for the current season, he added.
He said that the post-flood phenomenon in Sindh has also contributed to massive wheat sowing as adequate moisture in fields during crop cultivation supplemented the overall area under wheat production, the farmers also switched over from oil seed to wheat crop for its better rate of return.
Meanwhile, Punjab which has 76 per cent shares in total wheat sowing has achieved 109 per cent as against its sowing targets due to a well-coordinated wheat cultivation campaign during the season, he added.
He said that the crop sowing has gained momentum across the wheat-producing areas in the country as Punjab Province has completed wheat sowing over 103.09 per cent of areas as against the set targets.
The Punjab, which is the largest wheat-producing province in the country, has completed crop sowing over 16.48 million acres compared to the fixed targets of 15.99 million acres during the current season.
Meanwhile, Sindh Province has achieved 106.66 per cent of its targets as wheat cultivation in different divisions of the province was completed over 3.16 million acres as against the set targets of 2.97 million acres, he added.
Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also achieved wheat sowing targets by 100 per cent, and crop cultivation was completed over 1.93 million acres as compared to the set targets of 1.93 million acres during the current sowing season, he added.
He informed that according to the Provincial Crop Reporting Services, the Balochistan Province has achieved 100 per cent of wheat sowing targets set for the current season.
In Balochistan the wheat crop was cultivated over 1.93 million acres, he said adding the province was assigned a task to grow wheat over 1.33 million acres during the current season.
Food Security Commissioner further informed that crop productivity in rain-fed areas would be impacted due to long dry weather, particularly in the areas of Pothar region and other areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
He said that it was expected that carry-forward stocks of over 300,000 tons would be available by the arrival of new crop in the local markets that would further cement the strategic reserves and maintain smooth demand-supply in the open markets.