About 67.53mln tons sugarcane, 6.8mln tons rice to be produced during Kharif Season

ISLAMABAD, April 15: The government has set a target to produce about 67.535 million tons of sugarcane and 6.8 mln ton rice during current Kharif season (2016-17) to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as to export
The sugarcane would be cultivated over 1.125 million hectares of land across the country during the season, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. Talking to media here on Friday he said the major cash crop of the season grown over 4.6 percent of cropped area which was consisting of 22.6 million hectares. He said the Punjab contributes about 68 percent of the total output, where as Sindh produces 22.48 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan were contributing 9.45 percent and 0.06 percent respectively in total output of the crop.
During last season, he said sugarcane was cultivated over 1.14 million hectares of land and its production was recorded at 62.82 million tons. Rice which was the other major crop of the season would be cultivated over 2.794 million hectares of land during Kharif season 2016-17, he added. He said the rice production targets were fixed at 6.7 million tons during the season to fulfill the domestic needs as well as to exports. Besides these crops country has set to produce about 4.607 million tons of maize during current sowing season, he added.- DNA