ISLAMABAD, Oct 15 (ABC):Onion crop would be cultivated on 162,000 hectares in order 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 to export. In Punjab, the potatoes would be cultivated on 221,000 hectares as output targets for the province have been fixed at 5.966 million tons during current season as against the sowing of corresponding period of last year, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Talking here on Friday he 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 Federal Committee on Agriculture. The potatoes and onions are included in minor crops of the country and vital sources to tackle the domestic vegetables requirements, he said adding that potatoes crop would be grown over 2,500 hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to produce over 30,300 tons and in Balochistan the potatoes cultivation targets were fixed at 26,200 tons to tackle with the domestic needs. Meanwhile, he said that the onion crops in Punjab would be cultivated over 50,000 hectares and in Sindh on 60,000 hectares, adding that the crop output for both the provinces were set at 8.688 million tons and 2.300 million tons respectively during current Rabi season.
The onions to be grown on 12,000 hectares of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 40,000 hectares of Balochistan provinces in order to get about 2.30 million tons and 7.05 million tons of the output respectively during the season, he added. It is worth mentioning here that Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) fixed wheat output targets at 28.4 million tons by cultivating the crop over 9.3 million hectares during crop season 2022-23 in order to fulfill local requirements. The meeting held with Minister for National Food Security and Research in chair also 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.
