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Cotton to be sown at
3.125m hectares
KARACHI (APP)–The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee met here at
the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee under the chairmanship
of M. Shafi Niaz, Advisor to the Chief Executive on Food and
Agriculture.The Committee on the advice of the Provincial
Agriculture Departments decided to maintain this year’s cotton
area under sowing at
3.125 million hectares as against the target of 2.56 million
hectares set by the Federal Committee on Agriculture and 2.93
million hectares of last year’s area sown - showing an
increase of 22 per cent over the earlier envisaged target and
around 7 per cent over the last year.
The Committee was informed by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners
Association (PCGA) that the seed cotton arrivals by Ist
January, 2002 were of the order of 7.853 million equivalent
bales as against 8.601 million bales recorded by the same date
last year, thus showing a shortfall of 8.7 per cent.
The Provincial break up, however, indicated that the arrivals
in Sindh were higher by 5.38 per cent, but these were lower by
12.48 per cent in the Punjab.The textile mills had purchased
5.547 million bales till 31st December, 2001. The unsold
stocks available with the ginners were reported at 2.181
million bales as against 1.743 million bales of last year.
It was observed that due to foggy weather particularly in the
Punjab, the flow of arrivals by end December were affected.
Also, on account of the recent decline in seed cotton market
prices sufficient quantities were still lying with the farmers
and the middle men.
The Committee was informed that due to fog, the moisture
content in cotton had increased and therefore the ginneries
were reluctant to buy cotton from the farmers. It was also
observed that necessary measures by the Provincial extension
services were required to eliminate the chances of carry
forward of the pink bollworm and Army worm larvae to save the
next crop.
Thus, the Committee realised, it could be done by burning the
cotton sticks so that larvas could be killed.The Committee
also reviewed the efforts made for qualitative improvement and
elimination of contamination in cotton and stressed that
cotton standardisation and grading programme should be
implemented at grassroot level for realising the intrinsic
value of our raw cotton and its products in the international
market.
The Committee was of the view that cotton grading and
standardisation ordinance, being the pre-requisite, should be
promulgated at the earliest possible.While taking stock of the
situation and the assessment made by the Provincial
governments as well as other stakeholders, the Committee
unanimously agreed to a possible crop size of 10.4 million
bales on ex-farm basis this season with the Punjab 8.1The
meeting was attended by the officials of concerned public and
private sector organisations representing PGCC, Provincial
Agriculture Departments and Crop Reporting Services of Sindh
and the Punjab, Federal Plant Protection Department, TCP,
Pakistan Agricultural Pesticides Association, APTMA, PCGA, KCA
besides growers representatives from Sindh 2.2 million and
Balochistan 0.1 million bales.
Courtesy Nation January 10, 2002 |
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