Sowing target set at 5.7 million

Minister for Agriculture says government taking steps to improve cotton production

MULTAN: Minister for Agriculture Farrukh Javed said on Friday that the government was taking steps to improve cotton production.

He said cotton sowing targets for the province had been fixed at 5.7 million acres. He said the production target had been set at 9.5 million bales. He said all possible resources would be utilised to achieve the 21.25 maund per acre cotton yield target.

Talking to newsmen at Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI), the minister said the targets were achievable if weather remained pleasant.

“Scores of growers are being affected by climate change. They have also suffered because of low prices of their commodities in the international market,” he said. He encouraged farmers to purchase from the Punjab Seed Corporation.

“Last year, farmers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bought 400,000 cotton seed bags from the PSC,” he said.

He said training had been imparted to 718,751 growers on latest production technology.

He said 914 pesticide samples were taken and sent to laboratories for tests. He said it had been found that 10 samples were of poor quality. He said spurious pesticide worth Rs2.2 million had been seized in a campaign. He said complaints had been registered against 48 dealers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2016.