Staff Reporter
Islamabad
In order to fulfill the domestic requirement of pulses, the government has set a target to produce about 560,000 tons of gram and 890,000 tons of lentil during Rabi season 2020-21.
It had fixed to cultivate gram over 988.2 thousand hectares and lentil over 17.1 thousand hectares of land across the country, the crop sowing areas in the country, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Talking to media, he said that bumper production of pulses including moong and gram during the Kharif season were achieved that would help to save $129 million as import substitute.
He said that Pakistan harvested 76,000 tons additional moong against its set target for Kharif season and 53,000 tons of gram respectively as compared to production of last year.
The Provincial Crop Reporting Departments, he said, in their reports, have reported record production of rice in the history which was 8.18 million tons from an area of 3.3 million hectare.
The output witnessed an increase of 10.39%. It is also estimated that export of rice will be increased as 780,000 tons produced more rice as compared to the previous year.
The country spent $135.302 million on the import of pulses or leguminous vegetables during first quarter of financial year 2020-21 as compared to $118.710 million of corresponding period of last year.
According the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, during the period under review, about 274,299 metric tons of pulses imported as compared the import of 252,811 metric tons of same period last year.
Meanwhile, potato targets during the period under review fixed at 4,871 thousand tons as 191.6 thousand hectares of land to be put under potato cultivation in order to fulfill the domestic needs as well as for exporting.
