The Government has set a target to produce about 4.87m of potatoes and 2.220m tons of onions during Rabi Season 2020-21
The Government has set a target to produce about 4.871 million potatoes and 2.220 million tons of onions during Rabi Season 2020-21 in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for exporting.
During current season 191.6 million hectares land to be put under potato cultivation, whereas onions would be grown over 165 million hectares respectively, said an official in the Ministry of National food Security and Research.
He said that about 6.25 million tons of tomatoes and 13.85 million tons of chillies production targets were fixed under minor crop production scheme for the Rabi Season 2020-21.
He informed that minor crops which include seasonal pulses, vegetables and other mentioned commodities playing an important role in fulfilling the domestic consumptions as well as to fetch handsome amount of foreign exchange for the country by exporting of these commodities.
Meanwhile, he said that government has also set a target to produce about 560,000 tons of gram and 890,000 tons of lentil during current season as it had fixed to cultivate gram over 988.2 thousand hectares and lentil over 17.1 thousand hectares of land across the country, the crop sowing areas in the country.
He further informed that bumper production of pulses including moong and gram during the Kharif season were achieved that would help to save $129 million as import substitute.
He said that Pakistan harvested 76,000 tons additional moong against its set target for Kharif season and 53,000 tons of gram respectively as compared to production of last year.
The Provincial Crop Reporting Departments, he said, in their reports, have reported record production of rice in the history which was 8.18 million tons from an area of 3.3 million hectare.
The output witnessed an increase of 10.39%. It is also estimated that export of rice will be increased as 780,000 tons produced more rice as compared to the previous year.
The country spent the US $135.302 million on the import of pulses or leguminous vegetables during the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 as compared to the US $ 118.710 million of the corresponding period of last year.
According the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, during the period under review, about 274,299 metric tons of pulses imported as compared the import of 252,811 metric tons of same period last year.
Originally published at dunya