Pakistan eying 25m ton wheat production this year: Aulakh

"Wheat is being sown in the country with expectations that it will cover 22.34 million acre area this Rabi season." — File Photo

MULTAN: Punjab agriculture minister Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh has said that wheat production target for the Rabi season 2010-11 has been set at 25 million ton, some 1.5 million ton above the assessed national food requirement at 23.5 million ton.

While talking to newsmen at Fatehpur in district Layyah, Aulakh said that Punjab produces almost 76 per cent of the national wheat production and sowing has already begun in the province, according to a release issued by media liaison unit of Punjab agriculture department on Monday.

UN starts wheat aid to 500,000 Pakistani farmers

Some 2.4 million hectares of farmland were damaged by the floods, UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation stated. – AFP (File Photo)

ROME: The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said it had begun large-scale distribution of wheat seed in Pakistan to 500,000 farming families affected by catastrophic floods earlier this year.

The aid means the current planting season that ends in December will still take place, the FAO said in a statement, adding that it would also provide vegetable seeds and fertilizer and assist livestock farmers.

Wheat procurement suspended in Dadu

 DADU, April 9: Food officials suspended wheat procurement at the designated centres of the district on Friday to protest against threats allegedly hurled on the district food controller (DFC) by State Minister for Food and Agriculture Rafique Ahmed Jamali and his brother forcing them to provide more gunny bags.

They gathered outside the DFC office in Dadu and demonstrated against the two.

Sindh wheat crop to cross 3.7m tons mark

KARACHI: Wheat production in Sindh is likely to exceed 3.7 million tons target and finally end up somewhere near four million tons.
The province produced 3.6 million tons of wheat last year.

The estimates have been revised by agriculturists after reports that some more areas in Badin and other districts have come under wheat cultivation for Rabi crop now being harvested.

Food imports decrease by 34.65pc in November

ISLAMABAD: Food imports during the month of November registered a negative trend as they decreased by 34.65 per cent as compared to the previous month of the current financial year.
 
Data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) showed that during the month of November food commodities including milk, cream and milk food for infants, unmilled wheat, tea and spices costing $252.09 million were imported as compared to $325.7 million of last month.