KABUL (Pajhwok): More than 5.15 million metric tonnes of wheat have been harvested across Afghanistan this year, marking a 13.4 percent increase compared with last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MoAIL) said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the ministry said figures from its Directorate of Agricultural Statistics and Information Management showed that the country’s wheat harvest had reached 5.15 million metric tonnes this year, up 13.4 per cent from the previous year.
It said wheat was cultivated on 1.97 million hectares of land across the country this year, a 4.1 per cent increase compared with last year. Of the total area, 1.34 million hectares were irrigated land and 625,000 hectares were rain-fed.
It added that Afghanistan’s domestic wheat consumption requirements were estimated at 7.09 million metric tonnes this year. Given the country’s production of 5.15 million metric tonnes, part of the market demand is met through imports.
Wheat was cultivated on 1.89 million hectares of land last year, with total production reaching 4.54 million metric tonnes, the statement concluded.
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