Pakistan plans to produce 4.87 Million Tons of Potatoes

The Government of Pakistan 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 export.

During the current season 191.6 million hectares of 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.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, he said that about 6.25 million tons of tomatoes and 13.85 million tons of chilies production targets were fixed under a 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 a handsome amount of foreign exchange for the country by exporting these commodities.

Meanwhile, he said that the government has also set a target to produce about 560,000 tons of gram and 890,000 tons of lentil during the 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 USD 129 million as import substitute.

He said that Pakistan harvested 76,000 tons of additional moong against its set target for the Kharif season and 53,000 tons of gram respectively as compared to the 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 hectares.

The output witnessed an increase of 10.39%. It is also estimated that the export of rice will be increased as 780,000 tons produced more rice as compared to the previous year.

The country spent USD 135.302 million on the import of pulses or leguminous vegetables during the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21 as compared to USD 118.710 million of the corresponding period of last year.

According to the data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, during the period under review, about 274,299 metric tons of pulses imported as compared to the import of 252,811 metric tons in same period last year.