AGL 38.20 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.13%)
AIRLINK 129.30 Increased By ▲ 4.23 (3.38%)
BOP 7.85 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (14.6%)
CNERGY 4.66 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (4.72%)
DCL 8.35 Increased By ▲ 0.44 (5.56%)
DFML 38.86 Increased By ▲ 1.52 (4.07%)
DGKC 82.20 Increased By ▲ 4.43 (5.7%)
FCCL 33.64 Increased By ▲ 3.06 (10.01%)
FFBL 75.75 Increased By ▲ 6.89 (10.01%)
FFL 12.83 Increased By ▲ 0.97 (8.18%)
HUBC 110.72 Increased By ▲ 6.22 (5.95%)
HUMNL 14.03 Increased By ▲ 0.54 (4%)
KEL 5.22 Increased By ▲ 0.57 (12.26%)
KOSM 7.69 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (7.25%)
MLCF 40.08 Increased By ▲ 3.64 (9.99%)
NBP 72.51 Increased By ▲ 6.59 (10%)
OGDC 189.18 Increased By ▲ 9.65 (5.38%)
PAEL 25.74 Increased By ▲ 1.31 (5.36%)
PIBTL 7.38 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (3.22%)
PPL 153.45 Increased By ▲ 9.75 (6.78%)
PRL 25.52 Increased By ▲ 1.20 (4.93%)
PTC 17.92 Increased By ▲ 1.52 (9.27%)
SEARL 82.50 Increased By ▲ 3.93 (5%)
TELE 7.63 Increased By ▲ 0.41 (5.68%)
TOMCL 32.50 Increased By ▲ 0.53 (1.66%)
TPLP 8.48 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (4.31%)
TREET 16.74 Increased By ▲ 0.61 (3.78%)
TRG 56.01 Increased By ▲ 1.35 (2.47%)
UNITY 28.85 Increased By ▲ 1.35 (4.91%)
WTL 1.34 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (3.88%)
BR100 10,659 Increased By 569.2 (5.64%)
BR30 31,331 Increased By 1822.5 (6.18%)
KSE100 99,269 Increased By 4695.1 (4.96%)
KSE30 31,032 Increased By 1587.6 (5.39%)

Punjab missed cotton sowing target by 10 percent due to 50 percent canal irrigation water shortage and delayed wheat harvesting this season, Director General Punjab Agriculture Extension Services Dr Anjum Ali told Business Recorder here on Thursday.
He said several factors contributed to less sowing of the country's most important and cash crop namely, non-availability of canal irrigation water at ripe time, 20 days delay in opening of non-perennial canals in south Punjab, delayed wheat harvest, unprecedented electricity load-shedding, sharp increase in diesel prices and minimal water supply in rivers during whole month of May 2012.
Dr Ali said that till 6th June 2012 cotton had been sown over 5.49 million acres in the core and non-core areas of the province whereas it was sown over 6.1 million acre last year on the same date. He said that cotton sowing in cotton growing south Punjab, especially in Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar districts has been very slow this season leaving one million acres of land still unsown.
Similarly, in the non-core cotton growing divisions of Faisalabad and Sahiwal, the cotton growers have sown other crops like maize, potato, vegetable, fodder etc on about 1.5 million acres other than cotton crop, as canal irrigation water was not available and running of tube wells on diesel was too expensive and uneconomical.
The provincial government had set a target of 6.2 million acres for cotton sowing during 2012-13 but it could not be more than 5.5 million acres this year Dr Ali apprehended that due to delayed sowing and less cropped area, Punjab might not get the last year's record cotton production of 12 million bales. Meanwhile, Punjab Irrigation engineers told this scribe that as the water availability in rivers had improved during the past six days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012

Comments

Comments are closed.