The government has set the wheat production target at 25.5 million and rice production target at 6.2 million during the current fiscal year 2013-14. About 65 million tons of sugarcane would also be produced during the period under review, official sources said, adding that during this period 14.1 million cotton bales would be produced while maize production would go up to 4.6 million tonnes. About 24.231 million tonnes of wheat were produced during last fiscal year against the set targets of 25.5 million tonnes, showing decrease of 4.9 percent, however it was increased by 3.22 percent as compared to the crop production of 2011-12. Meanwhile, about 5.541 million tonnes of rice was produced during the last financial year as against the set targets of 6.9 million tonnes which witnessed a decline of 19.7 percent during the period under review, the sources added. However, sugarcane production in the country registered increase of 5.94 percent during last financial year as country harvested 62.50 million tons of sugarcane as against the set targets of 59 million tonnes for the year 2012-13. A production of around 5 million tonnes white sugar has been estimated which is 0.6 million tonnes above the local demand excluding the stocks. For year 2013-14 production target of 65 million tonnes of sugarcane has been fixed. Cotton, a mainstay of the economy has been under stress for the last many years due to virus attack and bad weather. The production of 13.1 million bales against last year’s level of production resulted in decrease of 3.68 percent. This happened due to flash floods in southern part of Punjab especially in districts of Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan and attack of cotton leaf curl virus. A production of 14.1 million bales of cotton is targeted for the year 2013-14.
