Cotton sowing witnesses 14pc increase

ISLAMABAD: Cotton cultivation during the current sowing season had witnessed 14% growth as compared to the corresponding period of last  year and  the crop had been cultivated over 2.65 million hectares of land across the cotton  growing areas of the country.

The cotton sowing targets for the crop season 2019-20 had been fixed at 12.72 million bales for fulfilling the domestic requirements as well as for exporting the commodity.

The cotton sowing target for the current crop season (2019-20) was fixed at 2.78 million hectares,Punjab and Sindh had the main covered areas with crop, said Cotton Commissioner in the Ministry of National Food Security and Research Dr Khalid Abdullah.

He said that cotton cultivation had been completed over 95.2% land as against the set target for current sowing season, which was higher than 14% during same period of last year.

He said that cotton growing in the Punjab Province had recorded about 9% growth as an area of 2.044 million hectares had put under the crop production as against the set target of 2.145 million hectares.

He said that sowing target had been achieved by 93.5% during the season, adding that cotton production target for the province had been fixed at 7.9 million bales during the crop season 2019-20.

Dr Abdullah said that cotton sowing in Sindh had witnessed an encouraging trend as it was increased by 35% as compared to  corresponding period of last sowing season.

In Sindh, crop had been cultivated over 0.608 million hectares as against the set target of 0.64 million hectares in order to produce about 4.6 million cotton bales during the period under review,he added.

Cotton Commissioner further said that Sindh had achieved 95 percent of its sowing target, adding that the crop had also been cultivated over 0.02 million hectares in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Balochistan over 0.2 million hectares respectively.

Besides, he said that  government would spent Rs 200 billion in five mega agriculture sector development projects during next 3-5 years in order to exploit the true potential of the sector for poverty alleviation.

The amount would be spent on five agriculture sectors promotion programs including livestock, dairy development, fishers and poultry development  which would help in alleviating poverty from the country particularly from the rural areas, he added.

Besides, five new agriculture markets would be established across the country to provide the farming community access to market and save them for the exploitation of middle man, adding that the existing markets would also be revamped and revitalized.