HYDERABAD (February 26 2004): Size of cotton crop 2003-04 would be around 2.2 million bales in Sindh despite heavy pest attack and poor availability of water according to revised statistic released by the Agriculture extension here on Wednesday.

Statistic indicates that up to 15th February the arrival of bales 19,06,446 of 170 kg each while export to Punjab during the period was 39017 bales. The seed cotton balance with ginneries is around 30,000 bales while crop standing in the fields of Dadu, Nawabshah, Khairppur and Ghotki is estimated to be around 1,00,000 bales.

The local consumption is around 50000 bales, which brought the total bales to 21,25,463, which if converted in average weight of APTMA (161.5) would surpass 2.2 million bales.

According to PCC sources the export of Sindh seed cotton to Punjab has been under estimated.

These sources maintained that the export of Sindh seed cotton is much higher than it was reported. When contacted the cotton monitoring cell reported that on account of law and order situation round the clock vigil is not possible at the check post and moreover there is around thousand acres under cotton cultivation between the check post and the Punjab border which has never been account for.

It may be mentioned that last year a case of misappropriation of Rs 4.4 million has been detected and inquiry is in progress but so far no one has been brought to book.

There are reports that some major cotton growers are also holding the produce to get better financial bargain in view of shortfall in world cotton production and once they brought their cotton in market the size of crop will further increase.

Courtesy Business Recorder