ISLAMABAD: Wheat sowing in Punjab Province has been completed over 13.9 percent area as the crop cultivation witnessed about 0.1 percent increase against the cultivation during the corresponding period of last year.
By the first week of current month (November), wheat crop sowing completed over 2, 257 thousand acres as against the set targets of 16, 220 thousand acres fixed for crop season 2022-23, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Talking to APP here on Monday, he said according to data provided by the crop reporting department of Punjab, the wheat sowing was gaining momentum in rain-fed areas of North Punjab due to timely rains and favorable weather conditions as wheat sowing was achieved by 12.1 percent and in South Punjab it was completed over 16.6 percent as against the set targets.
The sowing data from other provinces were awaited and it is expected that it would be received by next week, which would depict the overall sowing scenario, he said adding early sowing in rain-fed areas would help to boost overall sowing and achieve the set target of the season.
Meanwhile, he informed that the government had announced a special package of Rs 1,800 billion to promote and develop the local agriculture sector, particularly restoring and reviving agriculture in flood-affected areas by ensuring the provision of free seeds, access to credit, besides bring reducing the prices of fertilizers and electricity for tubewells.
He further informed that the Ministry of National Food Security and Research in collaboration with provincial governments would also provide over 3.183 million bags of certified wheat seeds to the farmers of floods affected areas to ensure maximum sowing of major cash crop of the season to revive the agriculture and avert the impact of catastrophe in the country.
The Ministry will start distribution of free wheat seeds to the farmers of flood-hit areas from November 10 in order to ensure maximum sowing of the crop to revive the agriculture sector in these areas, he said adding in this regard a digital application has been developed to deliver and distribute seeds among the flood-hit farmers in a transparent and efficient manner.
Each seed bag would comprise 50 kg of different approved verities while the cost of the scheme amounts to Rs17.16 billion. “The scheme covers about 78 percent of areas affected due to floods and torrential rains during the current moon soon season”, he added.
He further apprised about 4.04 million acres of agricultural land in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces were affected due to floods, adding a committee was also formed to review the situation and evolve a mechanism to ensure all possible incentives for the restoration of agriculture and livestock sector in these areas.
Out of the total allocated seed bags, about 50,000 bags would be distributed among the affected farmers of Punjab Province and 2.44 million bags would be provided to growers from the affected areas of Sindh.
Over 10,000 wheat seed bags will be provided to the farmers belonging to affected areas of KP, whereas 690,000 seed bags would be delivered to farmers of Balochistan province, he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Federal Committee on Agriculture had set a target to cultivate wheat crop over 9.250 million hectares during the current Rabi season in order to produce about 28.370 million tons of wheat to fulfill the local requirement as well as for exporting.
