in

Cotton to be Planted on 600,000 Hectares Across Sindh

Minister for National Food Security & Research (MNFS&R), Syed Fakhar Imam, chaired a meeting called to discuss the cotton and wheat situation in the country.

Agriculture Minister Sindh, Ismail Rahoo, Secretary Agriculture Sindh, Agri Minister Balochistan, Eng. Zamarak, Secretary Agriculture KP, and Secretary Agriculture Punjab also participated in the meeting.

Minister Sindh said cotton will be planted on 600,000 ha. Hitherto, sowing on 50 percent area has been completed in lower Sindh. The minister showed their concern on high input prices especially, DAP, Urea, and pesticides. He also showed concerns about seed quality.

Secretary Agriculture Punjab said the cotton will be planted on 4 million acres or 1.62 million acres. He also informed that so far, sowing on 13 percent area has been completed. He also informed the committee regarding the subsidy program of the provincial government on cottonseed and fertilizers.

Furthermore, the secretary informed that the Punjab seed council approved 15 new cotton varieties. Subsidy on whitefly pesticides will be disbursed through Kisan Card in Southern Punjab, he added.

The provincial government is also working on trace and track of cotton seeds so that quality seeds can reach the growers, he further informed.

Minister for Agriculture Balochistan informed that they are going to expand cotton cultivation on 20 districts. He informed the cotton quality of Balochistan is much higher than other provinces.

Balochistan is the first province to produce organic cotton with non-GMO seeds. They desire the Federal Government’s help in bio-fertilizers, biopesticides, and related machines and field equipment. He said that Balochistan has a vast potential for cotton cultivation.

Secretary Agriculture KP said southern districts of KP like DI Khan, Banu, Tank, and Lakki Marwat are best suited for cotton cultivation.

However, cotton in KP has competition with sugarcane, he said. Adding that the province wanted support from the Federal Government in setting up a ginning factory in the area to address the marketing issue of the province.

He added that KP has the potential to produce cotton seeds for the rest of the country, and this way, the value-added cotton production can compete with sugarcane.

The provinces informed the Federal Minister that Punjab would produce 19.6 million tons of wheat, Sindh will produce 4 million tons, Balochistan will produce 1 million tons, and KP will produce 1.2 million tons of wheat. A conservative estimate would therefore be 24.8 million tons of wheat produced by the country.

Agriculture Minister Sindh affirmed that they would participate in the subsidy program offered by the Federal Government as CM Sindh has approved the summary and will write to the MoNFSR next week.

Source from :

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings

    Car Financing Reaches All-Time High at Rs. 285 Billion

    HBL Posts An Exceptional 108% Increase in Profits