About 4.215 million acres land has been brought under cultivation of paddy as against the target of 4.27 million acres, which is 98.5 percent of the target in Punjab. This was disclosed by Chaudhry Abdul Ghaffar, Director General Agriculture (Extension & AR), Punjab, while addressing a meeting of the Rice Working Group, which was presided over by Fayyaz Bashir, Secretary Agriculture, Punjab.
Muhammad Yousaf, Special Secretary Agricultural Marketing in his presentation said that Pakistani basmati and coarse rice is currently being exported to 123 countries and 2.7 million tonne rice was exported in 2004-05, which is about 50 percent of the total rice production.
He said paddy cleaner-cum-dryer would be installed in public sector for demonstration purpose to check the Aflatoxin problem.
He added that the government was recommending the representation of rice farmers in the Quality Review Committee (QRC) to make pre-shipment inspection of rice more effective.
Dr Ijaz Pervez, Director Post Warning and Quality Control, advised the farmers to be vigilant and undertake conduced regular pest scouting of rice crop for timely and effective control of pests.
He recommended that the application of suitable insecticide liquid in case of rice stem borer infestation reached above FTI. He predicted that infestation of rice stem borer is likely to increase in Alipur Markaz, Tehsil Wazirabad.
In Gujranwala district, maximum number of moths was recorded during pest scouting of the area last week.
Dr Khalid Gill, Director Rapid Soil Fertility reported that during July and August, 199 samples of zinc were drawn for analysis out of which 19 were found unfit being fake/substandard and legal proceeding against the culprits had been initiated.
The representative of PCPA reported that adequate pesticides are available to control rice pests and diseases and there is no shortage at any place in the market.
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