ISLAMABAD, Aug 03 (APP):Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam Tuesday informed the National Assembly that the country witnessed record production of wheat, rice, sugarcane and maize this year.
Responding to a calling attention notice, raised by Rao Muhammad Ajmal regarding decrease in per acre production of wheat, cotton, rice and sugarcane, the minister said wheat production stood at 27.5 million tons, rice and maize around 8.4 million tons and sugarcane 81 million tons this year.
However, he said the government was also paying attention to cotton crop which production witnessed decrease during the said period.
He said support price for cotton had been fixed after eight to nine years to enhance its production.
He said unfortunately, new technology was not adopted for cotton crop with the passage of time resulting its low production. There was dire need of adopting new technology in that regard, he said.
He said target of four million acres and 1.7 million acres was fixed for cotton sowing in Punjab and Sindh respectively.
He said all out efforts were being made to bring Pakistan toward modern agriculture.
The minister said Pakistan Agriculture Research Council with over Rs4 billion budget was carrying out research for enhancing per year production of various crops.
The provincial governments had also their own research centres in their respective provinces, he added.