Farmers urged to override price slump

Caretaker CM foresees rebound of cotton rate

LAHORE:

As the government considered to jack up the sliding price of cotton through market intervention, Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday appealed to the farmers not to sell their produce at a low rate.

“We are trying to the utmost that the farmers receive Rs8,500 per maund,” he maintained while addressing an event on the eve of the White Cane Day.

The caretaker Punjab CM and his counterpart from Sindh Justice (Retd) Maqbool Baqar had earlier taken up the issue of a decline in cotton price with caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar.

They told him that the price of cotton had come down to Rs6,500 per maund and stressed that the government should intervene the market through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to stabilise the rates across the country.

Naqvi said the caretaker prime minister had taken notice of the matter and sought a report from the TCP. He expressed hope that the TCP would soon initiate cotton procurement from farmers. “We are hopeful that the cotton price will revert upwards and farmers will get due reward for their labour,” he said.

He said the farmers should take a steadfast stand and not let the price of cotton go down. The government was standing with them and would continue to support them.

On the occasion, Naqvi gave a cheque of Rs1 million to Pakistan blind cricket team Captain Nisar Ali. He announced that a cricket ground would be provided to the players of the team.

Worm-resistant variety

Meanwhile, the Punjab University Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) has developed a new triple gene, high yielding cotton variety. According to the university, the CKC-5 variety developed under the leadership of Professor Idrees Ahmad Nasir and Dr Tayyeb Hasnain is amenable to resisting all bollworms, including pink bollworm, which is very costly to curb conventionally.

The Punjab Seed Council has approved the variety for general cultivation. The CKC technology achieved by the Punjab University scientists to increase cotton production contains double Bt genes and a glyphosate resistance gene. It helps farmers to increase their income by reducing the number of insecticide sprays and saving the cost on hoeing.

The scientists explained that the varieties developed through the technology had covered nearly 70 per cent of the total area under cotton cultivation and were helping farmers to effectively control bollworms and weeds.

The largest part of Pakistan’s export revenue depends on cotton and its value-added products. Caretaker Punjab Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry SM Tanveer and PU Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Mehmood visited various laboratories of the CEMB engaged in the application of biotechnology in the fields of agriculture and health, and congratulated the team of scientists for giving another triple gene variety for the benefit of the farming community.

Dr Mehmood said on the occasion that the scientists of the CEMB were fully capable of solving the problems related to biotechnology, but there was a dire need for encouragement and funding for the projects of national interest.

CEMB Director Dr Moazur Rahman gave a briefing about various research projects in agriculture and health.

Plant Biotechnology Lab In-charge Professor Abdul Qayyum Rao initial experiments of genome editing technology had been highly encouraging and application of their findings could revolutionise the field of agriculture.

Cotton Breeding Programme Lead Researcher Dr Allah Bakhsh said his team would continue integrating the genome edited lines to the CEMB initiative as a source of germplasm to breed resilient cotton varieties.