Onion crops would be cultivated on 162,000 hectares of land to produce about 2.422 million tons of onion during Rabi season 2022-23, besides cultivating potatoes over 226,000 hectares to produce 6.029 million tons of potatoes for fulfilling the domestic requirements as well as exports, said an official.

An official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research said that in Punjab province, potatoes would be cultivated on 221,000 hectares land as output targets for the province have been fixed at 5.966 million tons during the current season as against the sowing of the corresponding period of last year.

The official said that the Sindh province was assigned a task to grow potatoes over 700 hectares to produce 65,000 tons, adding that the crop production targets were assigned in a meeting of the Federal Committee on Agriculture. He said potatoes and onions are included in minor crops of the country and vital sources to tackle the domestic vegetables requirements. He said the potato crop would be grown over 2,500 hectares land in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to produce over 30,300 tons yield and in Balochistan province, the potato cultivation targets were fixed at 26,200 tons to tackle domestic needs.

The official said the onion crops in Punjab would be cultivated over 50,000 hectares land and in Sindh on 60,000 hectares land, adding that the crop output for both the provinces was set at 8.688 million tons and 2.300 million tons, respectively, during the current Rabi season. He said onions are to be grown on 12,000 hectares land in KP, and 40,000 hectares land in Balochistan to get about 2.30 million tons and 7.05 million tons output, respectively, during the season.

The Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) has fixed wheat output targets at 28.4 million tons by cultivating the crop over 9.3 million hectares land during crop season 2022-23 to fulfil local requirements. The FCA meeting reviewed the output of Kharif crops and set the targets for Rabi crops for season 2022-23 besides discussing the availability of all inputs throughout the season.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk