Islamabad
The Ministry of National Food Security and Research on Friday said that the bumper production of pulses including moong and gram during the current Kharif season would help save $129 million as import substitute.
“Pakistan harvested 76,000 tons additional moong against its set target for Kharif season and 53,000 tons of gram respectively as compared to last year” it added.
It said that Provincial Crop Reporting Departments in their reports have reported record production of rice in the history which is 8.18 million tons from an area of 3.3 million hectare showing 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.
Meanwhile, the production of sugarcane also increased significantly as compared to last year which is 13.96%. During the next year, it is assumed that Pakistan will go in an export scenario of sugar rather to import. The production of maize is also satisfactory and exportable surplus will also remain available, besides fulfillment of domestic requirements on reasonable prices.
It is also informed that during the year, under initiative of Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Program, new and high yielding seed varieties of wheat to be available as wheat targets were fixed targets of 27 million tons during Rabi season 2020-21.— APP
