ISLAMABAD:Onion crops would be cultivated on 162,000 hectares 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 the current season as against the sowing of the corresponding period of last year, said an official in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Talking to reporter 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 the 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 the 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 was set at 8.688 million tons and 2.300 million tons respectively during the current Rabi season.
The onions are to be grown on 12,000 hectares of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 40,000 hectares of Balochistan provinces 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 to fulfill local requirements.
In the meeting held with Minister for National Food Security and Research, the 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.