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45pc water
shortage for next Kharif season anticipated
Govt decides to adopt water-management system to achieve
targets
 ISLAMABAD: The next Kharif crop in the country might be
hampered because of an anticipated 45 per cent shortage of
irrigation water during the Kharif season, coupled with
persistent El-Nino phenomenon, resulting in low monsoon
rainfall.
This was informed to the Federal Committee on Agriculture,
which met here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Federal
Minister for Food, Agriculture and Livestock Khair Muhammad
Junejo.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the minister
said, during the meeting, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa)
chairman informed that the water crisis persisted during the
Rabi season, which might affect the production. "The Irsa
chairman presented two scenarios: during the early Kharif
season, the water shortage will be around 53 per cent and in
the latter half it will be around 38 per cent and on average
it will be around 45 per cent shortage of irrigation water
during the whole season," Junejo added.
He said the director-general Meteorological Department also
forecast less rainfall, during the monsoon season due to
El-Nino phenomenon. The Irrigation Department expressed
apprehension that the water shortage would continue and there
was no chance of significant improvement, despite snowfalls in
hilly areas this year, he added. Keeping this scenario, he
said, the government had decided to adopt water-management
system to achieve the Kharif crop production targets.
He said during the ongoing Rabi season, despite 41 per cent
water shortage, the country would harvest 19.2 million tonnes
wheat against the target of 20 million tonnes. The carry-over
stock of wheat on May 1, this year would be 3.5 million tonnes,
making about 2.7 million tonne of wheat stocks surplus after
meeting domestic requirement of 21 million tonne, he said,
adding: "Setting aside 2 million tonne of wheat for the
strategic reserves, the country will have a surplus of 700,000
tonne wheat for export purpose."
For the Kharif season, Junejo said the government sets the
cotton production target at 10.06 million bales with 7.5
million bales from Punjab, 2 million from Sindh, 120,000 bales
from Balochistan and 200,000 from the NWFP. However, the
Punjab and Sindh had shown reservations about meeting the in
the wake of the water shortage, he added.
The minister said the committee fixed the target of 46 million
tonne for sugarcane. "With this production target, we expect
production of around 2.8 million tonne of sugar and after
adding carry-over sugar stock to it, there will be no need to
import sugar during the next fiscal year," he added.
Regarding rice production target, Junejo said the committee
had fixed a target of 4 million tonne rice production for the
next Kharif season -- half of it would be Irri and the
remaining would be Basmati.
In reply to a question, he said the decision of the Punjab to
close its canals to provide water to Sindh, would be
beneficial for cotton sowing in Sindh. "It is a gesture of the
Punjab, which is appreciable," the minister remarked.
When asked what would be the production targets if the Irsa,
in its meeting on next Wednesday, projected further shortage
of water during the Kharif season, Junejo said the committee
would review the target, but hoped that there would be no
further water shortage. He said the government was also paying
proper attention to enhance production of tea and edible oil
to save foreign exchange being spent for import of these
commodities.
Courtesy The News March
22, 2002
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Pakissan.com;
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