Govt focusing to increase cotton production: Fakhar Imam

• The minister said due to current situation of coronavirus timely procurement of wheat and availability of other essential food items has become highly important.
• The total procurement target of public sector is 8.25 Million tons as set in ECC cabinet meeting in February,2020.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam on Monday said that the government was focusing to increase cotton crop production by addressing issues of seed germination and pesticide availability.

He was chairing a meeting regarding issues pertaining to wheat procurement available stock position via video link he said that soon minimum support price of cotton seed will be announced.

The minister said due to current situation of coronavirus timely procurement of wheat and availability of other essential food items has become highly important.

He said issues like hoarding and smuggling of wheat from porous borders were the major challenge for many years. Moreover, due to rainy weather and movement issues wheat procurement process was reported to be slow.

It was told in the meeting that set SOP’s during procurement drive are being observed and efforts have been made by Punjab and KP Governments to resolve issue of intra provincial wheat procurement with the help of PASSCO and district administration.

The minister acknowledged the efforts of all four provinces and concerned departments and in order to implement strict monitoring policy on wheat procurement he ordered to submit procurement report by all four provinces on daily bases.

The minister was briefed about wheat production estimates and its available stock position from representatives of Punjab, KP, Sindh and Baluchistan. Current wheat stock position.

Additionally, the public sector has so far procured 274,292 tons of wheat from fresh harvest in early April.

The total procurement target of public sector is 8.25 Million tons as set in ECC cabinet meeting in February,2020.

The meeting was also attended by the Federal Secretary NFS&R, provincial ministers for agriculture of Balochistan & KP, Managing Director PASSCO and Secretaries of food departments of Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and KP along with representatives of federal and provincial concerned departments.