A High Powered Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting for Rabi Season (2021-22) was held on 7th October, 2021 at the Committee Room, P-Block Auditorium under the Chairmanship of Syed Fakhar Imam, Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research. Minister for Agriculture, Punjab, Syed Hussain Jahania Gardezi and Minister for Agriculture, AJK, Sardar Mir Akbar also attended this high powered committee meeting. The meeting had participants from Provincial Agriculture Departments, State Bank of Pakistan, ZTBL, National Fertilizer Development Center (NFDC), Pakistan Meteorological Department, Indus River System Authority and senior officers of the Ministry of National Food Security & Research. Chairman PARC, D.G. NARC and heads of Ministry’s attached departments viz., Agri. Policy Institute, Federal Seed Certification & Registration Dept., Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board, Department of Plant Protection, Federal Water Management Cell and Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) also participated in the meeting. 2. The Committee reviewed the performance of the Kharif Crops (2021-22) and Production Plan for Rabi Crops (2021-22). The Committee also discussed the situation of inputs for Rabi Crops (2021-22). The Committee was informed that Cotton production for 2021-22 is estimated at 9.37 million bales from an area of 1.9 million hectares showing an increase of 19.8% in production over the last year. The Committee was informed that Sugarcane production for 2021-22 is estimated at 87.67 million tons from an area of 1.27 million hectares showing an increase of 8.7 % and 8.2 % in area and production respectively over the last year. The Rice production for 2021-22 is estimated at 8.84 million tons from an area of 3.5 million hectares showing an increase of 5.8 % and 5.0 % in area and production respectively over the last year. The Maize production for 2021-22 is estimated at 9.0 million tons from an area of 1.4 million hectares. The Mung bean production for 2021-22 is estimated at 267.6 thousand tons from an area of 294.7 thousand hectares showing an increase of 27.3% and 30.8 % in area and production respectively over the last year. 3. Production achievements of major and minor crops like wheat, Mash, Gram, Potato, Lentil, Onion, Tomato and chilies were also discussed in the meeting. The Committee has fixed the production target for Rabi (2021-22). The target for wheat was fixed at 28.9 million tons on an area of 9.2 million hectares. Whereas, the production targets for Gram, Potato, Onion and Tomato fixed 559, 6028, 2421 and 621 thousand tons respectively. 4 .The seed availability for Rabi Crops also discussed in the house and it is informed by DG, FSC&RD that certified seed availability for the Rabi, 2021-22 will remain according to requirement. 5. For Rabi 2021-22, IRSA Advisory Committee has anticipated a shortfall of 28%. During the Rabi season provinces are allocated 26.91 MAF of water. Prevailing weather conditions are supportive and shortage is manageable. 6. Metrological Department informed that Pakistan rainfall, for the country as whole, for the Monsoon season 2021 was close to climatic normal (-9%). On regional scale, it remained above normal over GB, Baluchistan& KP and below normal over AJK, Punjab & Sindh. Consequently water Stress may be observed for Rabi crops due to deficient rains, particularly in rain-fed areas. Weather, outlook for the period of October to December, 2021 suggest that amount of rainfall will be below normal in agricultural plains of all the provinces of Pakistan. 7. In pursuance of government’s agenda for promotion of agriculture sector, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has assigned annual indicative agricultural credit disbursement target of Rs. 1,700 billion for FY 2021-22 to 49 institutions, which is 24.5% higher than last year’s disbursement of Rs. 1,366.0 billion. Accordingly, during July-August 2021 (FY 2021-22), the agricultural lending institutions disbursed Rs. 171.6 billion, which is 10.1% of the overall annual target and 7.5% higher than the disbursement of Rs. 159.7 billion made during the same period last year. The house also informed that during upcoming Rabi 2021-22 (November - December, 2021) supply of urea and DAP expected to remain stable.
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