Implementation of the Cotton Standardisation and Grading System at the grass-roots level is vital for the promotion of contamination-free and clean cotton production in the country.
The government has evolved a comprehensive strategy to boost production of contamination-free cotton for meeting growing challenges of World Trade Organisation regime.
According to official sources, quality control measures have been devised to fulfil the requirements of export and domestic use of cotton and the handling procedures for contamination-free cotton in ginning factories.
The strategy envisaged standardisation of cotton and recommendatory measures to the provincial governments for producing contamination-free cotton.
It has been decided to conduct grading of seed cotton and classification of lint cotton through its classes. The private inspection companies will be pre-qualified for certifying the quality of cotton.
Training in cotton grading and classes for growers, ginners, spinners, exporters and other persons of public and private sectors would be conducted to achieve the objectives, the sources added.
In addition, he said, a campaign was also being launched for the last two years to encourage cotton growers and the ginners for producing contamination-free clean cotton with visible improvement in bringing down the contamination level to five grams per bale from 19 grams per bale.
The ginning factories in the districts of Rahim Yar Khan where PCSI prescribed procedures for the production of high quality contamination-free cotton had been fully adopted with the contamination level ranging between 0.74 to 1.97 grams per bale.
The programme of clean cotton in the districts of Ghotki and Sanghar in Sindh, and Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan in the Punjab as well as Dera Allahyar in Balochistan would continue during the 2003-04 season.
The production of clean cotton needs to be expanded throughout the country for an overall improvement in the cotton quality through implementation of the cotton standardisation and grading system at the ginneries' level as provided under the Pakistan Cotton Standardisation Ordinance.
The success of the programme would, however, solely depends upon the response of the raw cotton exporters and the textile mills in making payments to the growers on the basis of grade and staple rather than the varieties and stations.
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