The federal and provincial agri experts have conceded that though present cotton crop situation is bleak, the flowering in the month of September will determine the exact size of the crop.
"It is premature to estimate the exact size of the crop, which is facing scores of threats," they briefed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture and Livestock, chaired by Makhdoom Ahmed Alam Anwar here on Thursday.
Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Syed Amir Ali Shah, Pir Aftab Hussein Shah Jilani, Sardar Bahadur Khan Sihar, Begum Tehmina Dasti, Makhdoom Muhammad Dewan Jaffar Hussain Bokhari, Rao Ajmal Khan, Nasrullah Khan Dareshak, Minister of State for Food, Agriculture and Livestock, Muhammad Ali Malkani, Secretary Minfal, Ismail Qureshi and senior officials of provincial and federal governments attended the meeting.
On a questions raised by Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on cotton production, the meeting was informed by the representatives of Sindh and Punjab that early water scarcity in Sindh led to 10 percent less sowing in the province while in Punjab, it shifted the sowing from May to June, which the experts believe could also lead to 3 to 4 maund less yield per acre. Secondly, the abundance of water in the form of monsoon rains damaged about 3.65 lakh acres of cotton crop. It included two lakh acres in Punjab, 1.5 lakh acres in Sindh and 16,000 acres in Balochistan, they added.
The meeting was also informed that increased attack of sucking pest, white fly and thrips, which are the main vectors of Cotton Curl Leave Virus (CLCV) could affect the cotton yield from half to a maund.
About the CLCV strain, it was informed that Multan Cotton Research Institute has completely developed resistant varieties of Multan CLCV strain while the efforts are underway to produce resistance varieties against Burewala CLCV strains.
Another reason, which might also lead to the low production of the cotton is the low height of the cotton plants, the agri expert said that it was due to increase in average temperature. The meeting was further informed that protocols on Bt cotton are simplified further to get maximum registration of local Bt cotton varieties and 5,000 tons seed of Bt cotton would be available for the next crop.
However, if the farmers would not be provided good varieties with high yield of local Bt cotton, they would sow unapproved Bt cotton, Shah Mehmood warned.
"The crisis is in the pipeline if imports of unregistered and unapproved varieties of Bt cotton not stopped. These varieties would bring in diseases like mealy bug", Shah Mehmood added.
Bio-safety rules/guidelines are simplified on the fast track to provide better and viral resistant varieties, as the economy of the country heavily relies on cotton, said Secretary Minfal, Ismail Qureshi.
Earlier, reviewing the damages caused by floods and heavy monsoon rains in Sindh and Balochistan, the meeting underlined improvement in the disaster management and relief systems.
Tehmina Dasti suggested that civil system to tackle disaster like floods, calamities, earthquakes and accidents should be put in place both at the provincial and federal governments levels instead of depending on military.
Javed Iqbal, an official from Balochistan was of the view that compensation of crops damages should be ensured during such disaster instead of giving incentives like waiving off water rates and agri loans.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, PPP leader also urged the committee that relief activities are only "paper work" and it should be stopped.