A High-Powered Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA)’s meeting for Rabi Season (2023-24) is held on 11th October, 2023 under the Chairmanship of Prof. Dr. Kauser Abdulla Malik, Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research at Auditorium, P-Block, Pak Secretariat, Islamabad. Mr. S.M. Tanveer, Minister for Agriculture, Punjab, Mr. Asif Rafiq, Minister for Agriculture Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Major General Shahid Nazeer, DG, LIMS attended the 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 M/o National Food Security & Research, Chairman PARC and heads of Ministry’s attached departments viz., Agriculture Policy Institute, Federal Seed Certification & Registration Department, Pakistan Oilseed Department, 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 (2023-24) and Production Plan for Rabi Crops (2023-24). The Committee also discussed the situation of inputs for Rabi Crops (2023-24). The Committee was informed that Cotton production for 2023-24 is provisional estimated at 11.5 million bales from an area of 2.4 million hectares showing a bumper increase of 126.6% in production over the last year. Rice production for 2023-24 is provisional estimated at 8.64 million tons from an area of 3.35 million hectares showing an increase of 12.7% and 18% in area and production respectively over the last year. Mung bean production for 2023-24 is estimated at 143.6 thousand tons from an area of 198 thousand hectares showing a decrease of 9.2% in area however, an increase of 6.4% in production over the last year. Mash for 2023-24 is estimated at 5.28 thousand tons from an area of 7.36 thousand hectares showing an increase of 12.95% and 24.65% in area and production respectively over the last year. The Chilies production for 2023-24 is estimated at 1.36 thousand tons from an area of 122.1 thousand hectares showing an increase of 1.4% and 2.3% in area and production respectively over the last year.
3. The Committee has fixed the production target for Rabi (2023-24). The target for Wheat was fixed at 32.12 million tons on an area of 8.9 million hectares. Whereas, the production targets for Gram, Potato, Onion and Tomato fixed 410, 6330, 2494 and 666 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, 2023-24 will remain satisfactory.
5. For Rabi 2023-24, IRSA Advisory Committee has anticipated shortage of water 15% for Punjab & Sindh during the Rabi season. Provinces are allocated 31.66 MAF of water. Prevailing weather conditions are supportive and shortage is manageable.
6. Metrological Department informed that overall, normal to slightly above normal precipitation is expected in most parts of the country particularly over northwestern regions. However, slightly below normal rains are likely over plains of Punjab and Sindh during the month of October. It is also informed that the temperature may remain above normal in most parts of the country
7. The house was informed that to stable food security situation in the country, the Government is trying its level best to facilitate the farmers by providing inputs at affordable price on one hand and is also doing efforts to ensure better price of their produce to bridge the gap between cost of production and output price in favor of farmers.
8. 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. 2,250 billion for FY 2023-24 to 47 institutions, which is 26.7% higher than last year’s disbursement of Rs. 1776 billion. Accordingly, during July-August 2023 (FY 2023-24), the agricultural lending institutions disbursed Rs. 326 billion, which is 14.5% of the overall annual target and 44% higher than the disbursement of Rs. 226 billion made during the same period of last year. The house also informed that during upcoming Rabi 2023-24 (November - December, 2023) supply of urea and DAP expected to remain stable.
