Pakistan loses Rs 250b crop production

According to sources the preliminary crop damage estimations provided by SUPARCO more then Rs 250 billion on Thursday, while officials fear the loss would multiply in coming days considering the dangers floods are posing.

The federal government constituted six teams which were given the mandate of damage assessment of crops within one week have failed to comply even after more then two weeks time.

The Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture asked those teams to submit the preliminary report for the losses occurred due to the havoc of floods but nothing yet heard from them but SUPARCO took the lead in assessing the damage.

The official data said that a total of 9.571 million hector area was sown this summer and 1.926 million hectors have been destroyed completely.

The initial estimations of production were a total of 74.793 million tons but 11.495 million tons have been lost in floods leaving behind an estimated 63.298 million tons of crop production causing a total loss of Rs 244.639 billion on 23rd of August.

The break up of losses showed that Sugarcane loss was recorded as .146 million hector out of total 1.047 upsetting estimated 54.834 million tons of production by 7.646 million tons causing loss of Rs 19.351 billion. The paddy crop production was estimated at 5.949 million tons and after floods it is expected to drop to 4.352 million tons impacting losses worth RS 56.386 million.

Cotton production has also been affected tremendously as it was cultivated over an area of 3.199 million hectare of which .514 million hectare has submerged cutting the production to 11.759 out of 14.010 million tons and causing loss of Rs 71.401 billion. Other cultivated crops that have been hit by the recent floods caused losses of Rs 97.502 as on 23rd Aug, 2010.

Other major crops that were damaged in Punjab were Citrus, Jowaar, Moong, Friut, Mash, Til, Fodder, and Vegetables. In Sindh Maize, Pulses, Til, Fodder, vegetables and citrus were damaged. In Baluchistan Jowar, Til and vegetables while in KPK fruit, maize, moong, mash, fodder and vegetables and in AJK fruit crops were destroyed.

The official prices of sugarcane, Paddy, Cotton were quoted as Rs 2500/- per ton, Rs 25000 per ton and Rs 29848 per bale respectively, while the prices for other corps have been quoted as 165.82 per unit.

Sugarcane crop in Punjab was most affected as recorded losses were Rs11.663 billions. The loss of Paddy crop was reported higher in Sindh and Balochistan as Rs 28.335 billion and Rs 17.976 billion respectively.

An estimated loss of Cotton crop was reported as Rs 41.166 billions in Punjab while the same was reported in Sindh as Rs 30.235 billions.

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on Aug 27 2010. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.