ISLAMABAD: Bumper wheat crop output of over 26 million tons was expected in the country during the crop season 2017-18 as against the production of about 25 million tons of same period of last year.
Despite the long prevailing dry spell during last Rabi season which had put negative impact on wheat sowing in rain fed areas, an healthy crop with bumper output was reported from the field formation across the country, said Food Security Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Dr. Imtiaz Ahmad Gopang.
He said that timely availability of all inputs including certified seeds, subsidized fertilizers and pesticides by the government had contributed in positive growth of the major cash crop of the season.
He informed that agriculture sector in the country was the most vulnerable of climate change, adding that efforts were on to introduce climate smart crop varieties to strengthened the food safety and security.
He further said that wheat harvesting was started in the Sindh Province, adding that procurement campaign had also kicked off in the province to purchase the produces from the farmers on official fixed rates.
Dr.Gopang informed that provincial food department was procuring the wheat from the farmers in Sindh, where as Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) has also setup its procurement centers across the crop growing areas in order to facilitate the growers to sell their produces on official fixed rates.
The PASSCO has given a task to procure about 900,000 tons of wheat across the crop growing areas of the country to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as to keep the strategic food reserves.
It may be recalled that Wheat crop sowing in the country had witnessed about 3 percent increase in Sindh while, it was decreased by 1 percent in Punjab.
