Pakistan is set to miss its wheat production target by a significant 2.2 million tonnes, the Agri Forum of Pakistan (AFP) said on Wednesday. According to details, the country produced a total of 22.8 million tonnes of wheat in the ongoing fiscal year 2013 – 2.2 million less than the set target of 25 million tons for the year.
“The wheat production shortfall was mainly booked from the province of Punjab that harvested a mere 17.5 million tonnes against its initial target of 19.2 million tonnes – showing a deficit of 1.7 million tonnes,” AFP Chairman Dr M Ibrahim Mughal told local media. He said the decline in production in the province was a result of poor planning and wrong estimations by the Directorate of Agriculture, Crop Reporting Service-Punjab since sowing.
“The directorate had estimated to produce 18.6 million tonnes in the year against the target of 19.2 million,” he said, “On the contrary, the AFP warned the directorate and other concerned officials in the government around March-end that Punjab could produce not more than 17.8 million tonnes of wheat during the year.”
He said the AFP was giving independent estimates after conducting surveys. The forum has deployed 75 people in the province to conduct these surveys. However, “the officials of the directorate were giving false estimates to please the agriculture secretary.” He said the province produced lower wheat due to late sowing, water shortage, lower use of fertiliser, and increase in cost of production of other inputs. Besides, the province of Sindh produced about 3.1 million tonnes of wheat against its target of 3.2 million; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa produced 1.2 million against a target of 1.6 million; and Balochistan produced 800,000 against a target of one million, he said.
Per the information provided by the forum, Pakistan is required to produce 26 million tonnes of wheat per annum to remain self-sufficient. Out of this, 23 million is required for human consumption, 1.5 million for seeding, while another 1.5 million is wasted by the time it reaches markets and flour mills.
Meanwhile, with the addition of 500,000 tonnes carryover stock from the previous year, the county now has a total of 23.3 million tonnes of wheat available for the year, Mughal said. He nevertheless warned that the food procurement departments of provinces and the federal wheat procurement agency have so far procured only 5.5 million tonnes against the set target of 7.1 million for the year.
