ISLAMABAD:Maize crop will be cultivated over 1.330 million hectares of land across the country during current Kharif season (2022-23) in order to fulfill the domestic requirements of maize as well as for exporting.
The crop output targets for the period under review has fixed at 7.197 million tons
as compared the production of 9.709 million tons, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Talking to reporter here on Friday, he said that area under maize cultivation would further increase as the provincial governments would apprised their final figures in consultation with field extension departments.
Meanwhile, he said that crop output during last season witnessed about 41 percent increase, where as per-hectares yield witnessed about 21.1 % growth.
In Punjab maize would be cultivate over 8.59 million hectares in order to produce 6.247 million tons of the crop, he said adding that in Sindh it would be cultivated over 0.044 million hectares and crop output targets fixed at 0.0035 million tons.
The maize output targets were fixed at 0.939 million tons by growing the crop over 0.461 million hectares and in Balochistan it would be cultivated over 0.004 million hectares to get about 0.0053 million tons of maize respectively.
In Pakistan, after wheat and rice maize is third important cereal crop. Maize contributes 2.2 % to the value added in agriculture and 0.4 percent to GDP, he said adding that maize is cultivated as multipurpose crop for food, feed and fodder.
The use of maize as direct food for human in the country is declining but its utilization in the feed and wet milling industry is growing at a much larger pace than anticipated, he added.