The cotton sowing during the same period of last year was recorded at 41 percent, said Khalid Abdullah, Cotton Development Commissioner in the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He informed that Sindh has set aside about 6,50,000 acre of land for cotton cultivation to fulfil the domestic requirements as well as for exporting the commodity.

Some districts of the province have achieved 100 percent cotton sowing whereas in some areas the sowing has touched 105 percent of the target, he added.

Khalid Abdullah said that districts including Thatha and Tandu Muhammad Khan have achieved 105 percent of cotton sowing while Umer Kot 94 percent and Hyderabad 86 percent.

Meanwhile, he said that crop sowing in Punjab has registered a slow trend as the province has completed the cultivation over 39 percent of proposed targets showing a decline of 21 percent as against the sowing of same period of last corresponding year.

The main reasons for this decline were unexpected rains during last month which led delay in the wheat harvesting and land preparations for next crop, he added.

Cotton Commissioner said that usually the experts prescribe to cultivation of BT varieties of the cotton by the end of May for getting better output and avoiding any insects attack on the crop.

However, he said that the cotton cultivation was getting momentum in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as farmers were putting more area under the crop because of its increasing price.

Besides, the provincial government was also providing technical assistance and organizing the field level seminar to educate the farmers for the promotion of cotton and increasing the output of the commodity in the country, he added.

It may be mention here that this year government has proposed to produce about 14.9 million cotton bales however the estimates would be revised in the meeting of Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) which is scheduled here soon.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011